Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Smith

376 N.W.2d 506, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4669
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedNovember 12, 1985
DocketC6-85-586, C4-85-778
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 376 N.W.2d 506 (Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Smith, 376 N.W.2d 506, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4669 (Mich. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinions

OPINION

FORSBERG, Judge.

Thomas Smith and Clarence Dupey appeal from the trial court’s judgment granting Auto-Owners Insurance Company’s motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

FACTS

Thomas Smith worked as a bartender in St. Paul. On December 12, 1982, Smith worked from noon until 5:00 p.m. After his shift ended at 5:00 p.m., Smith remained at the bar to drink and watch television.

Although the bar closed at midnight, Smith did not leave until approximately 1:45 a.m. He left with Brenda Barr, a co-employee who told Smith of problems she was having with a Wade Dupey. Barr stated that Dupey continued to harass her, and had even tried to run her off the road. Smith told Barr that he would “take care of it.”

Barr then drove Smith past the Dupey home where Smith observed Dupey’s car parked directly in front of the house and a light on upstairs. Smith fired four shots at the lower level of the house from his .38 caliber colt, which he had taken to work. One of the shots struck and killed Marion Dupey, Wade’s mother, who was sleeping on a couch in the living room.

Smith did not learn of Marion Dupey’s death until the next day while he was working. According to Smith, both he and Barr were shocked to learn of her death. Smith claims that his only intent was to scare Wade Dupey so that Dupey would quit bothering Barr. Smith claims that he purposely fired at the darkened lower level of the house in order to avoid the lighted area upstairs and the possibility of injuring someone. Smith further claims that he thought the bullets would not pass through the wall of the house. Smith admits, how[508]*508ever, that he should have known of the danger.

Clarence Dupey, as trustee for Marion Dupey’s next-of-kin, brought a wrongful death action against Smith. Auto-Owners, the carrier for Smith’s homeowner’s and automobile insurance policies, brought a declaratory judgment action seeking to have a determination of its duties to defend and indemnify Smith.

The trial court concluded as a matter of law that Smith intended to inflict injury, and found that:

[T]he acts of defendant Smith are such that an intention to inflict and injure must be inferred as a matter of law. It is uncontroverted that he intentionally fired four shots from a .38 pistol into a dwelling which he knew to be occupied. The facts compel the conclusion that Smith fired the shots with knowledge and expectation that someone might be injured or killed in the process.

The trial court, therefore, found that Smith’s acts were intentional, and released Auto-Owners from liability under the “expected or intentional act” exclusion of the insurance policy. Accordingly, the trial court granted Auto-Owner’s motion for summary judgment.

ISSUE

Whether intent to inflict injury may be inferred as a matter of law from Smith’s act of shooting bullets into a house so as to release Auto-Owners from liability under an “expected or intentional act” exclusion of the insurance policy.

ANALYSIS

I.

Summary judgment is proper when: the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that either party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Minn.R.Civ.P. 56.03. The Minnesota Supreme Court has stated that “[a] material fact is one of such a nature as will affect the result or outcome of a case depending upon its resolution.” Rathbun v. W.T. Grant Co., 300 Minn. 223, 229, 219 N.W.2d 641, 646 (1974). Accordingly, if an intent to injure may be inferred from the nature and character of Smith’s act, there would be no material fact issue and Auto-Owners would be entitled to summary judgment, for an intent to injure excludes an insured assailant from coverage. The coverage alleged here is under two different policies, one, an automobile policy, the other, a homeowner’s policy.

II.

A. Automobile Policy

Smith’s car was not involved in any way with the shooting incident and, therefore, the injury was not causally related to the operation of the car for transportation purposes nor was it an active accessory to the injury received. See Holm v. Mutual Service Casualty Insurance Co., 261 N.W.2d 598, 603 (Minn.1977). As to the automobile policy, summary judgment was proper.

B. Homeowner’s Policy

The homeowner's policy contained the following exclusion:

Under personal liability coverage and medical payments to others we do not cover:
1. bodily injury or property damage expected or intended by an insured person.

The parties acknowledge that to exclude liability coverage the “intent” of an insured must be to cause bodily injury. See Caspersen v. Webber, 298 Minn. 93, 98, 213 N.W.2d 327, 330 (1973). The intent may be established by actual proof of an intent to injure or by showing that the character or nature of the act is such that intent can be inferred as a matter of law. See Woida v. North Star Mutual Insurance Co., 306 N.W.2d 570, 573 (Minn.1981) (en banc) (citations omitted); Caspersen v. Webber, 298 Minn. 93, 99, 213 N.W.2d 327, 330 (1973).

[509]*509Smith and Dupey argue on appeal that summary judgment was inappropriate for two reasons. First, Smith did not possess the requisite intent to inflict bodily injury and because material facts are in dispute. Second, this fact situation is not of the type in which the inference of intent to injure as a matter of law should be raised.

1. Proof of Actual Intent

Smith and Dupey argue that a dispute exists as to whether Smith possessed an actual intent to inflict injury.

Although Smith admits that he should have known of the danger of firing shots into a residence, there is nothing of a factual nature in the record to support the contention that Smith intended to inflict bodily injury or that he had a plan to injure. The Minnesota Supreme Court has stated that “[w]hen the act itself is intended but the resulting injury is not, the insurance exclusion has no application.” Caspersen v. Webber, 298 Minn. 93, 98, 213 N.W.2d 327, 330 (1973) (citation omitted). An “expected or intentional act” under an insurance contract cannot be defined in terms of foreseeability from the standpoint of the insured. Continental Western Insurance Co. v. Toal, 309 Minn. 169, 176, 244 N.W.2d 121, 125 (1976). Smith intended to scare Wade Dupey. In doing so, there is no evidence he intended to injure a particular individual.

2.

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Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Smith
376 N.W.2d 506 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
376 N.W.2d 506, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/auto-owners-insurance-co-v-smith-minnctapp-1985.