American Family Insurance Co. v. Walser

628 N.W.2d 605, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 411, 2001 WL 748171
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 5, 2001
DocketC1-00-349
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 628 N.W.2d 605 (American Family Insurance Co. v. Walser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Family Insurance Co. v. Walser, 628 N.W.2d 605, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 411, 2001 WL 748171 (Mich. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION

PAUL H. ANDERSON, Justice.

Appellant Matthew Jewison was injured after falling from the rim of a basketball hoop from which he had been hanging by his hands. Jewison fell because two of his acquaintances pulled on his ankles, causing him to lose his grip on the rim. After receiving medical treatment and therapy for the injury, Jewison sued the two acquaintances, one of whom was covered by a homeowner’s policy issued by American Family Insurance. American Family then initiated a declaratory judgment action, alleging that it had no duty to defend or indemnify. American Family argued that no coverage existed under the policy for [607]*607the insured’s actions because the insured acted intentionally, even if he did not intend to harm Jewison. The district court concluded as a matter of law that the insured’s actions were intentional, but that the resulting injury was not intentional, and therefore, American Family had a duty to defend and indemnify the insured. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed, concluding that there was no coverage because the insured committed a tortious act, the act was intentional, and therefore the act could not be considered an accident. We reverse.

On May 6,1996, Matthew Jewison, Andy Walser, Jason Shoemaker, and other students were in a gym at the Mapleton High School. At the time, Jewison was in the ninth grade, Walser was in the tenth grade, and Shoemaker was in the twelfth grade. The three were in the gym because their choir teacher had asked them to move some chairs.

Jewison gave the following version of what happened in the gym. Jewison, who was about 6 feet 4 inches tall, jumped up and began hanging by his hands from the rim of a basketball hoop. After hanging from the rim for about 5 to 10 seconds, Walser and Shoemaker grabbed Jewison’s ankles and began tugging on them. Jewi-son characterized their actions as “just goofing around” and “playing around and stuff.” Walser and Shoemaker were standing under the basketball hoop facing Jewison as they held his ankles. Walser and Shoemaker backed up a bit while holding Jewison’s ankles, but then let go. Jewison held onto the rim for another 10 to 20 seconds and then Walser and Shoemaker grabbed Jewison’s ankles another time. Walser and Shoemaker again backed up while holding Jewison’s anHes, “pulled harder,” and this time Jewison lost his grip on the rim and fell to the floor. .After Jewison lost his grip but before he hit the floor, Walser and Shoemaker let go of his ankles. Jewison, “by instinct,” used his left hand to break his fall, injuring the middle finger in his left hand. Walser and Shoemaker both apologized to Jewison and when asked if he thought Walser and Shoemaker intended to injure him, Jewi-son responded, “No, not at all.”

Walser’s version of what happened differed only slightly from Jewison’s. Walser stated that Jewison jumped up and grabbed the rim a couple of times before the incident happened. On the last time Jewison jumped up, he hung on the rim. Walser told him to get down because he was not supposed to be hanging from the rim. Walser stated that he and Shoemaker each grabbed one of Jewison’s ankles, but he could not recall if they pulled Jewi-son in any specific direction. Walser thought that he and Shoemaker pulled Jewison “close to straight down.” Walser gave the following description of how Jewi-son fell. “I think he landed a little bit on his feet first and then kind of pushed himself backwards. And that was when he put his arms back.”

Walser stated that he and Shoemaker were just “goofing around” and did not have any hostile feelings toward Jewison; instead, everything was done in a friendly manner. Walser stated that although he and Shoemaker intended to pull Jewison down from the rim, they did not intend to injure him. Walser agreed with the statement that his pulling on Jewison’s ankles was “tjjust one of the things that high schoolers may do.”

Jewison testified that he had jumped up and hung on basketball rims “hundreds” of times before the May 1996 incident. In all of those times, he never injured himself doing so. Nor had he ever witnessed anyone else get injured from holding onto the rim and then falling down. Walser testified that before the May 1996 incident, he [608]*608jumped up and hung from basketball rims a “couple dozen” times. He also witnessed others doing the same thing. Although the Mapleton basketball coaches had told the students not to hang from the rims, Walser had never seen anyone injured from doing so before Jewison was injured.

In his fall from the basketball rim, Jewi-son injured his third metacarpal knuckle. For 6 months after the fall, Jewison received therapy for this injury. Jewison’s medical insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, paid $8,399.40 in medical bills as a result of his injury. Jewison and his father commenced an action against Walser and Shoemaker to recover these losses. Wal-ser, who was insured through his parents’ policy with American Family, tendered his defense to the insurance company.

American Family initiated a declaratory judgment action, asking the district court to conclude that American Family had no duty to defend or indemnify Walser. American Family asserted two reasons why it should not have such a duty. First, American Family argued that its policy does not cover the May 1996 incident because it was not an “occurrence” as defined in the coverage provision of the policy. Second, American Family asserted that the incident was the result of an intentional act by Walser and therefore coverage was excluded by the intentional act exclusion.

The parties agreed to submit the matter to the district court based on Jewison’s and Walser’s depositions. Relying on Hauenstein v. St. Paul-Mercury Indem. Co., the court found that Jewison’s injury was caused by an accident because it was “an unexpected, unforeseen, or undesigned happening or consequence * * *.” 242 Minn. 354, 358, 65 N.W.2d 122, 126 (1954). The court also found that while Walser intended to pull Jewison down from the rim, he did not intend to injure Jewison. The court stated that as a matter of law Walser’s actions “were intentional but the resulting injury was both unexpected and unintended and was therefore an accident.” Further, the court found that the facts in this case did not warrant inferring intent to injure as a matter of law. The court then went on to conclude that as a matter of law the incident was an occurrence for purposes of the American Family policy, so coverage did exist and American Family had a duty to defend and indemnify Walser.

American Family appealed to the court of appeals. The court of appeals reversed in an unpublished opinion, concluding that Walser and Shoemaker committed an intentional tort when they grabbed Jewison’s ankles. Am. Family Ins. Co. v. Walser, No. C1-00-349, 2000 WL 1182799, at *2 (Minn.App. Aug. 22, 2000). The court reasoned that because the injury resulted from an act that was both intentional and wrongful, it could not be considered an accident. See id. Therefore, the incident was not an occurrence as required for coverage under American Family’s policy. Id. In reaching this conclusion, the court focused on whether Walser intended to act and in doing so acted wrongfully, not on whether Walser intended the harm. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
628 N.W.2d 605, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 411, 2001 WL 748171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-family-insurance-co-v-walser-minn-2001.