Reames v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance

683 A.2d 179, 111 Md. App. 546, 1996 Md. App. LEXIS 128
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedOctober 1, 1996
Docket1650, Sept. Term, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 683 A.2d 179 (Reames v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reames v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance, 683 A.2d 179, 111 Md. App. 546, 1996 Md. App. LEXIS 128 (Md. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

HARRELL, Judge.

Appellants, Calvin E. Reames, his wife, Rita S. Reames, and their seventeen year old daughter Selena Reames (“Ms. Reames”), appeal from a declaratory judgment entered by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County (James S. McAuliffe, Jr., J.) declaring that appellee, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (“State Farm”), owed no duty to defend Ms. Reames, pursuant to her parents’ homeowners’ insurance poli *548 cy, in a civil tort action brought against her. We find no reversible error and, accordingly, shall affirm the lower court’s decision.

ISSUE

Appellants raise the following issue for our consideration, which we have condensed and rephrased:

Whether the tort complaint, with or without extrinsic evidence, alleged liability that was actually or potentially within the policy’s coverage thus giving rise to a duty to defend.

FACTS

This appeals arises out of a declaratory judgment action instituted by appellants in order to determine if State Farm, under a homeowners’ insurance policy issued by State Farm on the Reames’ home in Montgomery County, Maryland, had a duty to defend Ms. Reames, in a tort action brought by her former boyfriend. Under this policy, State Farm promised to provide appellants 1 a defense “[i]f a claim is made or a suit is brought against an insured for damages because of bodily injury or property damage to which this coverage applies, caused by an occurrence[.]” 2 The policy defined bodily injury and occurrence as follows:

“bodily injury” means physical injury, sickness, or disease to a person. This includes required care, loss of services and death arising therefrom.
Bodily injury does not include:
******
c. emotional distress, mental anguish, humiliation, mental distress, mental injury, or any similar injury unless it arises out of actual physical injury to some person.
*549 “occurrence” ... means an accident, including exposure to conditions, which results in ... bodily injury ... during the policy period.

Under this policy, there was also an exclusion for bodily injury or property damage

(1) which is either expected or intended by an insured; or
(2) to any person or property which is the result of willful and malicious acts of an insured.

The underlying suit for which appellants requested a defense (hereinafter “Salvado v. Reames”) was instituted on 16 December 1994 when Carlos J. Salvado (“Mr. Salvado”) filed a two count complaint against Ms. Reames seeking substantial damages for malicious prosecution and abuse of process. 3 In his complaint, Mr. Salvado initially set forth facts describing an altercation that occurred among three individuals in the Reames’s family home when he allegedly walked in on his then girlfriend, Ms. Reames, and one Brian Rucker in Ms. Reames’s bedroom. According to the complaint, Mr. Salvado and Ms. Reames had begun dating in the summer of 1992 and they “became boyfriend and girlfriend.” As of 1 October 1993, the two had developed a relationship whereby Mr. Salvado was permitted to enter the Reames’s family home, where Ms. Reames resided, without obtaining additional permission from anyone. The factual allegations of the complaint continued that in the late evening of 1 October 1993

[Ms.] Ream[e]s lured Salvado to the House. Acting pursuant to the express and implied permission which Salvado had to enter the House, he entered the House, whereupon he found another male [Mr. Brian Rucker] and [Ms.] Ream[e]s in [Ms.] Ream[e]s’ bedroom. An altercation between Salvado and said male ensued, whereupon Ms. Ream[e]s assaulted and battered Salvado.

According to the complaint, a female friend of Ms. Reames who was also present at her house then called the police and, “at the behest of [Ms.] Ream[e]s, falsely reported that a *550 breaking and entering had occurred and that an assault and battery upon [Ms.] Ream[e]s had occurred.” When the police arrived, Ms. Reames allegedly told them that Mr. “Salvado had broken into and entered the House, without permission, and that Salvado had assaulted and battered her.” As a result of these statements, Mr. Salvado was arrested and charged with breaking and entering and assault and battery. After a trial on these charges, Mr. Salvado was found not guilty on both charges. 4

In the complaint’s first titled count for malicious prosecution, Mr. Salvado alleged that Ms. Reames maliciously initiated the charges brought against him by providing false information to the police with a primary purpose other than bringing him to justice. Mr. Salvado alleged that these actions

injure[d][him] personally ... by ... defaming him, seeing that he was arrested and prosecuted, causing him emotional distress, and otherwise causing him personal injury.... As a direct and proximate result of [Ms.] Ream[e]s’ actions and statements, ... [he] has ... suffered the creation of a criminal record, material harm to his reputation and standing in the community, emotional distress and turmoil, embarrassment, humiliation, and other personal injuries.'

The second count of Mr. Salvado’s complaint for abuse of process alleged that Ms. Reames instigated, initiated, and procured the bringing of the charges against Mr. Salvado by advising, assisting, or encouraging the police to arrest him “not for a purpose for which criminal process ordinarily is used, but in order to accomplish an ulterior purpose, which was to harass, annoy, embarrass, and otherwise personally harm Salvado.” The complaint alleged further that

[a]s a direct and proximate result of [Ms.] Ream[e]s’ actions and statements, Salvado has been injured ... and has suffered the creation of a criminal record, material harm to *551 his reputation and standing in the community, emotional distress and turmoil, embarrassment, humiliation, and other personal injuries.

On 10 January 1995, Ms. Reames entered into a retainer agreement with John R. Dugan, Esquire, under which Mr. Dugan was to represent her in connection with her defense in Salvado v. Reames and to determine if she was covered by her parents’ homeowners’ insurance policy. Also on 10 January, Mr. Dugan sent a letter to State Farm “requesting that State Farm defend [Ms. Reames in Salvado v. Reames ] ... under the Reames’ Homeowner’s policy.” 5 On 17 January 1995, State Farm, in a letter to appellants, stated that, based on its preliminary review “it appears that the allegations in ... [the][c]omplaint [filed against Ms. Reames] do not fall within the purview of coverages under [the policy].” State Farm therefore recommended that Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
683 A.2d 179, 111 Md. App. 546, 1996 Md. App. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reames-v-state-farm-fire-casualty-insurance-mdctspecapp-1996.