Nationwide General Insurance Company v. DiBileo

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 20, 2021
Docket3:19-cv-01003
StatusUnknown

This text of Nationwide General Insurance Company v. DiBileo (Nationwide General Insurance Company v. DiBileo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nationwide General Insurance Company v. DiBileo, (M.D. Pa. 2021).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

NATIONWIDE GENERAL No. 3:19-CV-01003 INSURANCE COMPANY and NATIONWIDE MUTUAL FIRE (Judge Brann) INSURANCE COMPANY,

Plaintiffs,

v.

GARY DIBILEO, JR., JERALD COYNE a.k.a. JERRY COYNE, and JONATHAN MARTINES,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JULY 20, 2021 Plaintiffs Nationwide General Insurance Company and Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company (“Nationwide”) have sued Gary DiBileo, Jr., Jerald Coyne, and Jonathan Martines (“Declaratory Judgment Defendants”), seeking declaratory judgment from this Court as to the scope of Nationwide’s duty to defend in an underlying lawsuit. The motion is now ripe for disposition; for the reasons below, it is denied without prejudice to Nationwide’s ability to renew the motion as the underlying action develops. I. BACKGROUND Nationwide issues homeowner’s insurance policies that provide coverage in

case of certain accidents. The Declaratory Judgment Defendants were all insured individuals under their respective parents’ policies. In this action, Nationwide seeks a declaration from this Court stating that it has no duty to the Declaratory Judgment Defendants in another civil suit before this Court: Piazza v. Young.1

A. The Piazza Litigation The duty to defend flows from the facts alleged in the underlying complaint. Thus, the Court must review the allegations from the Amended Complaint in the

Piazza lawsuit (“Piazza Amended Complaint”).2 In the declaratory judgment action, I recount the facts as alleged in the Piazza Amended Complaint that are specifically relevant to the Declaratory Judgment Defendants. The death of Timothy Piazza garnered local and national attention and

stemmed from Timothy’s prospective membership in the Alpha Upsilon Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at The Pennsylvania State University in early 2017. On February 2, 2017, Timothy attended the chapter’s Bid Acceptance Night.3

Throughout that night, he and the other pledges were required to drink an

1 No: 4:19-cv-00180 (M.D. Pa.). 2 A more detailed recounting of the allegations in the Piazza litigation may be found at this Court’s memorandum opinion on the motion to dismiss the original Piazza complaint at 403 F. Supp. 3d 421 (M.D. Pa. 2019). Although the complaint was subsequently amended, the facts remained largely the same. To be clear, in analyzing coverage for this declaratory judgment action, the Court reviews the Piazza Amended Complaint. excessive amount of alcohol as part of an event called “The Gauntlet.”4 By the end of Bid Acceptance Night, Timothy had consumed eighteen alcoholic drinks.5

Some of the fraternity brothers put him on a couch on the first floor of the fraternity house, but Timothy apparently moved from the couch and fell down the basement stairs, suffering serious injuries and losing consciousness.6 Later in the

evening, several of the Piazza defendants, including DiBileo and Coyne, attached a backpack to Timothy’s back and filled it with books to keep him from rolling onto his back and aspirating his own vomit.7 During several interactions with other fraternity members while

unconscious, Timothy became increasingly sick. Around 4:00 a.m., he tried to stand up but fell backward and hit his head on the floor.8 Coyne observed this, tried to shake Timothy awake and then exited the room, leaving Timothy alone and unattended.9 Over the next two hours, Timothy attempted several times to get up,

but failed each time, ultimately falling head first into the house’s front door after trying to leave the house.10 At 5:52 a.m., Martines approached Timothy while he

4 Id. ¶ 159. 5 Id. ¶ 247. 6 Id. ¶¶ 257-62. 7 Id. ¶¶ 278-80. 8 Id. ¶¶ 302, 303. 9 Id. ¶¶ 304, 305. was lying on the floor but did not provide any aid and then left Timothy where he was.11

At almost 11:00 a.m. the following day, an unidentified fraternity member called 911, and Timothy was taken to a hospital.12 The fraternity members spent the next two days trying to cover up their conduct, and Timothy died from his injuries one day later.13 Timothy Piazza’s parents sued on January 31, 2019,

seeking damages for the conduct of the various defendants in that matter. II. DISCUSSION A. Standard of Review

I begin my analysis with the standard of review which undergirds summary judgment. “One of the principal purposes of the summary judgment rule is to isolate and dispose of factually unsupported claims or defenses.”14 The Supreme Court of the United States has advised that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56

“should be interpreted in a way that allows it to accomplish this purpose.”15 Summary judgment is appropriate where “the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a

matter of law.”16

11 Id. ¶¶ 310-312. 12 Id. ¶¶ 314, 315. 13 Id. ¶¶ 317-332. 14 Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323–24 (1986). 15 Id. at 324. Material facts are those “that could alter the outcome” of the litigation, “and disputes are ‘genuine’ if evidence exists from which a rational person could

conclude that the position of the person with the burden of proof on the disputed issue is correct.”17 A defendant “meets this standard when there is an absence of evidence that rationally supports the plaintiff’s case.”18 And a plaintiff must “point

to admissible evidence that would be sufficient to show all elements of a prima facie case under applicable substantive law.”19 A judge’s task when “ruling on a motion for summary judgment or for a directed verdict necessarily implicates the substantive evidentiary standard of proof

that would apply at the trial on the merits.”20 Thus, if “the defendant in a run-of- the-mill civil case moves for summary judgment or for a directed verdict based on the lack of proof of a material fact, the judge must ask himself not whether he

thinks the evidence unmistakably favors one side or the other but whether a fair- minded jury could return a verdict for the plaintiff on the evidence presented.”21 “The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the [nonmovant’s] position will be insufficient; there must be evidence on which the

17 EBC, Inc. v. Clark Bldg. Sys., Inc., 618 F.3d 253, 262 (3d Cir. 2010) (quoting Clark v. Modern Grp. Ltd., 9 F.3d 321, 326 (3d Cir. 1993)). 18 Clark v. Modern Grp. Ltd., 9 F.3d 321, 326 (3d Cir. 1993)). 19 Id. 20 Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252 (1986). jury could reasonably find for the [nonmovant].”22 Part of the judge’s role at this stage is to ask “whether there is [evidence] upon which a jury can properly proceed

to find a verdict for the party producing it, upon whom the onus of proof is imposed.”23 In answering that question, the Court “must view the facts and evidence presented on the motion in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.”24 The evidentiary record at trial will typically never surpass what was

compiled during discovery. The party requesting summary judgment bears the initial burden of supporting its motion with evidence from the record.25 For example, while “at the

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Nationwide General Insurance Company v. DiBileo, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nationwide-general-insurance-company-v-dibileo-pamd-2021.