Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Insurance

48 P.3d 137, 334 Or. 191, 2002 Ore. LEXIS 380
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 7, 2002
DocketCC C96-1230-CV; CA A98241; SC S46892
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 48 P.3d 137 (Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Insurance, 48 P.3d 137, 334 Or. 191, 2002 Ore. LEXIS 380 (Or. 2002).

Opinions

[193]*193DE MUNIZ, J.

In this insurance case, we are asked to determine whether Oregon Mutual Insurance Company (defendant) had a duty to defend its insured, Little John’s Pizza (Little John’s), in a tort action by a former Little John’s employee, Winters. After that action was settled, Little John’s and its owner, John Minnis (Minnis), brought this action against defendant. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of defendant. The Court of Appeals reversed that judgment in part, holding that defendant had a duty to defend Little John’s because Winters’s complaint could have imposed vicarious liability on Little John’s for conduct of its manager, Tuck Minnis (Tuck), that was covered under the policy.1 Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Ins. Co., 162 Or App 198, 212, 986 P2d 77 (1999).

We allowed defendant’s petition for review and now conclude that, as explained below, the underlying complaint could not have imposed vicarious liability on Little John’s for any conduct by its manager that was covered by the policy. Accordingly, defendant did not have a duty to defend Little John’s. We affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the Court of Appeals, and we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

The material facts are not in dispute. John Minnis owned and operated Little John’s, a pizza parlor that was managed by his brother, Tuck. Little John’s hired Winters, then 17 years old, to work in the pizza parlor. After several months, Winters quit her job and brought an action against Minnis, Tuck, and Little John’s, alleging that she was forced to quit her job because of sexual harassment.

In her complaint, Winters included claims of sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. Because the allegations in Winters’s sexual harassment, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress claims [194]*194are central to our discussion of whether defendant had a duty to defend Little John’s, we set them out in detail here.2

Winters’s first claim for relief was for sexual harassment. In that claim, Winters alleged that:

“At all material times, * * * Tuck Minnis was a management level employee of * * * Little John’s ****** Tuck Minnis was [Winters’s] direct supervisor and acted at all material times in the scope of his employment.
“At all material times, * * * John Minnis was the owner of* * * Little John’s * * *. * * * John Minnis was [Winters’s] direct supervisor and acted at all material times in the scope of his employment.
“[Winters] was employed by * * * Little John’s * * * from approximately April 1, 1995 [,] until July 5, 1995 [,] when she was forced to quit her job.
“During and throughout such employment as stated above, [Winters’s] supervisor, * * * Tuck Minnis, a man approximately twenty years older than [Winters], encouraged and engaged in a continuous pattern and practice of subjecting [Winters] to sexually explicit conduct and comments, creating a sexually hostile work environment, and conditioning [Winters’s] continued employment on acquiescence to such an environment. * * * Tuck Minnis’[s] sexually explicit comments included, but were not limited to the following:
“(a) Unwelcome statements and graphic descriptions of sex habits, activities, body parts [,] and abilities;
“(b) Repeated offensive sexual comments about the anatomy of females;
“(c) Telling another employee under his supervision that he wanted [Winters] to ‘wear short skirts with fishnet stockings.’
“On or about May 28, 1995, * * * Tuck Minnis called [Winters] at home at 3:45 a.m. and implored her and her female roommate * * * to come over to his apartment to help him grieve the death of his brother. [Winters] and her roommate went to his apartment and stayed from approximately 4:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. During that time period [195]*195[Winters] was subjected to sexually explicit, unwelcome, offensive and intimidating comments and conduct from [Tuck Minnis, including]:
“(a) Unwelcome forced kissing, and touching of [Winters’s] breasts while pinning her arms against the wall;
“(b) Unwelcome lifting up of [Winters’s] clothes and fondling [Winters’s] body underneath;
“(c) Following Winters into the bathroom against her wishes and touching her against her will;
“(d) Intimidating and offensive graphic sexual comments * * * while forcing himself on top of Winters and asking her to have sex with him;
“(e) Unwelcome rubbing of [Tuck Minnis’s] body against [Winters’s] body;
“(f) Intimidating statements about his ability to fire employees at Little John’s * * *, but that [Winters] should think of herself as his friend.
“Upon returning to work after the above described incident, * * * Tuck Minnis continued to subject [Winters] to unwelcome sexual conduct, comments, and attempted flirtation, to continue the pattern and practice alleged [above], and to retaliate against [Winters] for having resisted his past sexual advances. * * * Little John’s * * * had no anti-sexual harassment policy, and no specified avenue or avenues of complaint.
“On or about June 6, 1995 [,] while [Winters] was working at * * * Little John’s * * * with * * * Tuck Minnis, and while no other employees were there, [Winters] was again subjected to sexually explicit, intimidating, unwelcome and offensive comments and conduct directed towards her by her supervisor, * * * Tuck Minnis, which included but were not limited to the following:
“(a) Attempting to tear off [Winters’s] clothing in an apparent effort to rape her. * * * Tuck Minnis pulled on [Winters’s] pants so hard that they fell down around [her] ankles and * * * Tuck Minnis * * * fell off his chair;
“(b) Unwelcome and offensive graphic sexual comments * * *:
[196]*196“(c) Unwelcome rubbing of [Minnis’s] body against [Winters’s] body;
“(d) Chasing [Winters] around the pizza parlor;
“(e) Unwelcome touching of [Winters’s] body and grabbing her face.
“[Winters] reported the harassment described above to her mother and to other co-workers at the pizza parlor. [Winters’s] mother and [Winters] reported the harassment to * * * John Minnis. * * *

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 P.3d 137, 334 Or. 191, 2002 Ore. LEXIS 380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minnis-v-oregon-mutual-insurance-or-2002.