Genesis Insurance v. City of Council Bluffs

677 F.3d 806, 2012 WL 1648842
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 2012
Docket11-1277, 11-1741
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 677 F.3d 806 (Genesis Insurance v. City of Council Bluffs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Genesis Insurance v. City of Council Bluffs, 677 F.3d 806, 2012 WL 1648842 (8th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises from an insurance coverage dispute. The City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and its police officers, Daniel Larsen and Lyle Brown, (collectively, “the City”) sought coverage from Genesis Insurance Company (“Genesis”) for § 1983 claims in the nature of malicious prosecution. Genesis filed suit against the City, seeking a declaratory judgment that its policies provided no coverage for the underlying actions. The district court 1 granted summary judgment to Genesis. The City appeals, arguing that the district court erred in ruling as a matter of law that the policies do not provide the City insurance coverage for the claims. We affirm.

I. Background

Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee filed two underlying civil actions against the City based on the City’s conduct in their criminal prosecutions.

A. Underlying Criminal Actions

In 1977, Harrington and McGhee were arrested for the murder of retired police officer John Schweer. “Harrington, who was seventeen at the time, was charged with Schweer’s murder and was ultimately convicted [on August 4, 1978], primarily on the testimony of a juvenile accomplice, Kevin Hughes.” Harrington v. State, 659 N.W.2d 509, 514 (Iowa 2003) (footnote omitted). According to Hughes,

Hughes, Harrington, and ... McGhee ... went to [a car] dealership with the intent to steal a beige Toronado. Hughes waited in Harrington’s car while Harrington and McGhee walked around a building to find the desired automobile. Harrington had a shotgun. Shortly after Harrington and McGhee left, Hughes heard a gun shot. Then Har *808 rington and McGhee came running back. Harrington said he had just shot a cop.

Id.

Like Harrington, McGhee was convicted of Schweer’s murder on May 11, 1978, and sentenced on June 13, 1978. Both Harrington and McGhee received life sentences.

Following his conviction, Harrington’s direct appeal failed, “as did a subsequent postconviction relief action in which he claimed that Hughes’[s] testimony was perjured.” Id. at 515. “Harrington also unsuccessfully sought habeas corpus relief in federal court.” Id.

In 2000, Harrington filed his second state postconviction relief action. Id. Harrington requested that his conviction be vacated “based on an alleged due process violation arising from the prosecution’s failure to turn over eight police reports to the defense during the criminal trial.” Id. at 516. “He ... asserted a Brady violation occurred in 1978 because these reports contained potentially exculpatory evidence of an alternative suspect and they had been withheld by the prosecution.” Id. at 518. The Iowa Supreme Court held “that Harrington’s due process right to a fair trial was violated by the State’s failure to produce the police reports documenting their investigation of an alternative suspect in Schweer’s murder.” Id. at 525. Therefore, the court ordered that the state trial court vacate Harrington’s conviction and grant him a new trial. Id.

On April 17, 2003, Harrington was released from prison. On September 2, 2003, McGhee was released from prison after entering an Alford plea. 2

B. Underlying Civil Actions

In 2005, Harrington and McGhee filed suit against, inter alia, the City of Council Bluffs and Officers Daniel Larsen and Lyle Brown of the City of Council Bluffs Police Department. Both Harrington and McGhee brought claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985(3). According to the district court, Harrington’s and McGhee’s “§ 1983 claims seeking damages for constitutional injuries resulting from their arrests, convictions, and incarcerations are in the nature of malicious prosecution because [they] essentially allege that their constitutional rights were violated as a result of the wrongful institution of legal process against them.” Gulf Underwriters Ins. Co. v. City of Council Bluffs, 755 F.Supp.2d 988, 992 (S.D.Iowa 2010) (quotation and citation omitted). 3

C. Declaratory Judgment Action

The City provided Genesis notice of the underlying civil actions. Thereafter, Genesis filed suit against the City seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment that its policies did not provide coverage for the underlying civil actions. Genesis alleged that it owed no duty to indemnify the City in the underlying civil actions because the claims that Harrington and McGhee asserted related to bodily injury or personal injury that occurred prior to the Genesis policies.

“Genesis [had] issued two separate, consecutive indemnity insurance policies to the City. The first policy was effective from January 1, 2002[,] to January 1, 2003[,] and the second was effective from January 1, 2003[,] to January 1, 2004----” Id. at 992 (internal citation omitted). The City “coneede[s] that Genesis has no duty *809 to defend.” Id. at 1003. But the policies “do clearly implicate a duty to indemnify for covered losses.” Id.

“SECTION I” of the policies, entitled “COVERAGE,” provides, in relevant part:

A. Insuring Agreement
1. Subject to the applicable Limit(s) of Insurance of this Coverage Part, we agree to indemnify the Insured for the ultimate net loss in excess of the retained limit for which the Insured becomes legally obligated to pay because of bodily injury, 4 personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage which occurs during this policy period and to which this insurance applies....
2. This insurance applies to bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage which occurs during this policy period, provided that prior to this policy period, no Insured ... knew that the bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage had occurred, in whole or part. If such listed Insured ... knew, prior to this policy period, that the bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage occurred, then any continuation, change or resumption of such bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage during or after this policy period will be deemed to have been known prior to this policy period and will not be covered hereunder.
3.Bodily injury, personal injury, advertising injury, or property damage which occurs during this policy period

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Bluebook (online)
677 F.3d 806, 2012 WL 1648842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/genesis-insurance-v-city-of-council-bluffs-ca8-2012.