State Farm Fire & Cas. v. Compupay

654 So. 2d 944, 1995 WL 106929
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 15, 1995
Docket93-2009
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 654 So. 2d 944 (State Farm Fire & Cas. v. Compupay) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Farm Fire & Cas. v. Compupay, 654 So. 2d 944, 1995 WL 106929 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

654 So.2d 944 (1995)

STATE FARM FIRE & CASUALTY CO., a foreign insurer, Appellant,
v.
COMPUPAY, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellee.

No. 93-2009.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

March 15, 1995.
Rehearing Denied June 7, 1995.

*945 Russo & Talisman and Elizabeth Russo, Coconut Grove, for appellant.

Brenton N. VerPloeg, Gallwey, Gillman, Curtis, Vento & Horn, and Karen H. Curtis, Miami, for appellee.

Before HUBBART, BASKIN and LEVY, JJ.

BASKIN, Judge.

State Farm Fire & Casualty Company [State Farm] appeals a final summary judgment finding that it had a duty to defend its insured, Compupay, Inc. [Compupay], a defendant in an employee's sexual harassment and sexual discrimination suit. We reverse.

Taymy Ode, a former Compupay employee, sued Compupay, and Larry Wank, Compupay's officer and Tampa branch manager, for damages stemming from Wank's sexual harassment and sexual discrimination of Ode, from Compupay's failure to investigate Ode's allegations against Wank and to take corrective action, and from Compupay's negligent retention of Wank. State Farm denied coverage and did not provide Compupay with a defense. Compupay settled the lawsuit with Ode.[1]

Thereafter, Compupay sued State Farm, its business liability insurance carrier, alleging that State Farm breached its duty to defend Compupay. Compupay asserted that State Farm's policy provided coverage for the loss under the personal injury provisions and under the bodily injury provisions. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted final summary judgment in Compupay's favor.

The issues in this case are: 1) Whether the business liability policy provides coverage to Compupay for damages under the bodily injury or personal injury provisions; and 2) Whether public policy bars Compupay from recovering insurance proceeds to compensate it for losses incurred in an employee's sexual harassment/sexual discrimination claim. Our disposition of the case makes it unnecessary to reach State Farm's public policy argument.

I. Duty To Defend

Whether State Farm had a duty to defend Compupay is resolved by examining the "allegations of the complaint against the insured, not by the actual facts, nor the insured's version of the facts or the insured's defenses. There is no obligation on an insurer to defend an action against its insured when the pleading in question shows the applicability of a policy exclusion." Reliance Ins. Co. v. Royal Motorcar, 534 So.2d 922, 923 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988) (citations omitted), review denied, 544 So.2d 200 (Fla. 1989). If the facts alleged show any basis for liability *946 falling within policy coverage, the insurer must defend the suit. Baron Oil Co. v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 470 So.2d 810 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). However,

[a] liability insurance company has no duty to defend a suit where the complaint upon its face alleges a state of facts which fails to bring the case within the coverage of the policy. Consequently, the company is not required to defend if it would not be bound to indemnify the insured even though the plaintiff should prevail in his action.

National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Lenox Liquors, Inc., 358 So.2d 533, 535 (Fla. 1977). Ode's complaint, in pertinent part, is appended to this opinion. In light of the factual allegations therein, we must determine whether there is any possibility that State Farm's policy covers Compupay for the losses it suffered in the sexual harassment and sexual discrimination action.

II. Availability of Coverage

A. Bodily Injury Coverage.

Compupay argues that Ode's factual allegations place the case within the policy's bodily injury coverage. State Farm maintains that the exclusion from coverage of on-the-job injuries applies in this case; and, that the acts of sexual harassment were intentional, not accidental. Because the acts were not "occurrences," the policy does not afford coverage. Here, the business liability policy[2] provides coverage for damages incurred as a result of "bodily injury, ... caused by an occurrence to which this policy applies." The policy defines "occurrence" as "an accident ... neither expected nor intended from the standpoint of the insured" and excludes coverage for "bodily injury to any employee of the insured arising out of and in the course of their employment... ." In analyzing the policy provisions, we give the terms of the contract their everyday meaning and read them in light of the skill and experience of an ordinary person. Lindheimer v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 643 So.2d 636 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994) (on rehearing en banc). If the terms are clear and unambiguous, we need not resort to rules of construction to interpret the policy provisions. Old Dominion Ins. Co. v. Elysee, Inc., 601 So.2d 1243, 1245 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992).

The acts alleged in Ode's complaint do not fall within the policy's definition of an occurrence. Ode's complaint alleges that Wank's acts were specifically and intentionally directed towards her person. This court, upon interpreting an insurance policy defining "occurrence" as an accident, and excluding coverage for injury "expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured," has held that "the law is well-settled that there can be no coverage under an insurance policy which insures against an `accident' where `the [insured's] [sic] wrongful act complained of is *947 intentionally directed specifically toward the person injured by such act... .'" Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Spreen, 343 So.2d 649, 651 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977). Under this interpretation, acts of sexual harassment and discrimination, which are directed towards the injured person, are intentional acts. As such, Wank's acts fall outside of the definition of "occurrence" and no insurance coverage lies.

Compupay disingenuously argues that Ode's allegations constitute an accident because Compupay was not expecting them to occur. Ode's complaint alleges that Compupay was aware of Wank's past sexual discrimination and harassment practices, and asserts that Compupay ignored Ode's protests and complaints about Wank's behavior. Consequently, Wank's continuing pattern of sexual harassment and discrimination of employee Ode were predictable and should have been within Compupay's expectation. In determining the duty to defend, we may not consider the insured's view of the events, or its defenses. Reliance Ins. Co. Based on Ode's allegations, the events were not an accident, and not an "occurrence." No insurance coverage lies.

State Farm also argues that Wank's harassment and discrimination acts were not accidental because in sexual harassment cases, as in sexual abuse cases, the intent to harm the victim can be inferred. Landis v. Allstate Ins. Co., 516 So.2d 305 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (acts of child molestation clearly intentional and deliberate), aff'd 546 So.2d 1051, 1053 (Fla. 1989) ("To state that a child molester intends anything but harm and long-term emotional anguish to the child defies logic."). It can be reasoned that an act of discrimination or harassment, like an act of sexual abuse, has but one end: to harm the victim. Indeed several courts have concluded that sexual harassment is deemed an intentional act as a matter of law. Commercial Union Ins., Co. v. Sky, Inc., 810 F. Supp. 249, 253 (W.D.Ark. 1992) ("it strains the imagination to speculate how a pattern of sexual overtures and touching can be `accidental.'"), and cases cited therein;

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Bluebook (online)
654 So. 2d 944, 1995 WL 106929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-farm-fire-cas-v-compupay-fladistctapp-1995.