Stevenson v. Hamilton Mutual Insurance Co.

672 N.E.2d 467, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1513, 1996 WL 653750
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 12, 1996
Docket07A01-9605-CV-158
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 672 N.E.2d 467 (Stevenson v. Hamilton Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stevenson v. Hamilton Mutual Insurance Co., 672 N.E.2d 467, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1513, 1996 WL 653750 (Ind. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERTSON, Judge.

George David Mitchell [Decedent] and his wife, Lee Etta R. Mitchell [Widow], both licensed funeral directors, had operated a mortuary business known as Serenity Chapel. Decedent had founded and developed the business. - After Decedent's death, Widow continued to run the business as the sole owner and director. Decedent was buried in a cemetery under the direction of Serenity Chapel. Widow and Serenity Chapel were insured under a Business Owner's Policy with a Mortician's Malpractice Endorsement issued by the Hamilton Mutual Insurance Company [Insurance Company].

In 1991, Decedent's daughter, Barbara Mitchell Stevenson [Daughter], initiated a will contest in the Jackson Cireuit Court against Widow (who was Decedent's second wife and not Daughter's mother) alleging that Widow had misappropriated Daughter's rightful inheritance by exerting undue influence and fraud over Decedent. At the courthouse on the day that trial was scheduled, Daughter and Widow entered into a settlement agreement, the terms of which were recited in open court and incorporated into a court order. Under the agreement, Widow was to pay Daughter certain sums of money and execute certain documents. The agreement also provided that Daughter could purchase and place a monument on her father's grave in the cemetery and, generally, bear responsibility for maintaining the grave. Daughter purchased and placed a monument on her father's grave.

Widow did not perform her part of the agreement, was held in contempt, and was sanctioned by the trial court. Eventually, *470 Widow paid Daughter the money owed under the agreement.

However, over the 1994 Memorial Day weekend, Decedent's mother, Wyrtis Mitchell (now deceased) [Mother] and sister (Daughter's aunt), Annalou Freeman [Sister], visited Decedent's grave and discovered that the body had been disinterred and was missing along with the monument which had marked the grave. It was later learned that Widow had caused the body to be disinterred and reburied elsewhere in the cemetery. The new grave had been marked with a used monument engraved with the name and dates of another person. This discovery caused Daughter, Mother, and Sister pain, anguish, and mental suffering.

Daughter, Mother, and Sister sought relief in the pending Jackson Cireuit Court lawsuit requesting compensatory and punitive damages against Widow for 1) breach of the settlement agreement, 2) conversion of the monument, and 3) the intentional infliction of emotional distress for her deliberate, willful, outrageous, and bad faith conduct in desecrating Decedent's grave. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the matter at which all parties were represented by counsel and presented evidence. It was learned that Widow had applied to the State Board of Health to disinter Decedent before Daughter had placed the monument on the grave, thus establishing that Widow had never in-' tended to honor the settlement agreement/court order with respect to Daughter's right to maintain her father's grave. The trial court entered specific findings to the effect that Widow had covertly, without any notice to the court, counsel, or family members, disinterred Decedent's body as part of a bad faith, malicious, and oppressive plan to vindictively retaliate against the Daughter and Decedent's family with the intention to cause them great anguish. The trial court found Widow, as well as Serenity Chapel, to be liable for the:

independent tortious conduct that is accurately described as bad faith, fraudulent, oppressive, malicious, and constitutes extreme and outrageous conduct designed to intentionally, recklessly, expectedly, and proximately cause severe emotional distress and harm to [Daughter, Mother, and Sister].

The trial court awarded compensatory damages in favor of Mother and Sister in the amount of $75,000.00 each for:

the severe emotional distress, depression, anxiety, and apprehension caused to her by [Widow's] tortious and calculated conduct in disinterring [Decedent] as above described, ...

The trial court awarded Daughter 1) $3,000.00 for the conversion of the monument pursuant to Ind.Code 34-4-80-1 (Civil remedy for crimes against property); and 2) $50,-000.00 for the severe emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and apprehension caused by Widow's conduct in disinterring Decedent. The trial court imposed punitive damages in the amount of $150,000.00 to be shared by Daughter, Mother, and Sister. Widow/Serenity Chapel appealed the decision of the Jackson Cireuit Court, and that appeal is presently pending before this court (but, not before the panel in the instant case).

The present declaratory judgment action was then initiated in the Brown Cireuit Court against the Insurance Company which has refused to defend or indemnify Widow/Serenity Chapel for the judgment based upon a standard policy exclusion for "intentional or expected conduct." The Insurance Company obtained summary judgment on that basis, and this appeal ensued. Two appellant's briefs have been submitted-one by Daughter, Mother's estate, and Sister, and the other by Serenity Chapel. For simplicity, we will refer to all appellants collectively as Widow. The appellants have submitted an aggregate of eleven issues, which we restate and consolidate into two, neither of which constitutes reversible error. Additional facts are supplied as necessary.

DECISION

In reviewing a motion for summary judgment, this court applies the same standard as the trial court. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. v. Dye, 684 N.E.2d 844, 846 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), trams. denied. We must determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact and whether the law has been correctly applied by the trial court. *471 Cloverleaf Apartments, Inc. v. Town of Eaton, 641 N.E.2d 665, 667 (Ind.Ct.App.1994). Summary judgment is appropriate only if no genuine issues of material fact exist and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ind.Trial Rule 56(C); Heck v. Robey, 659 N.E.2d 498, 500 (Ind.1995). Neither the trial court, nor the reviewing court, may look beyond the evidence specifically designated to the trial court. Seufert v. RWB Medical Income Properties I Ltd. Partnership, 649 N.E.2d 1070, 1072 (Ind.Ct. App.1995). Onee the movant for summary judgment has established that no genuine issue of material fact exists by submission of materials contemplated by TR. 56, the non-movant may not rest on his pleadings but must set forth specific facts, using supporting materials contemplated under the rule, which show the existence of a genuine issue for trial. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Metzler, 586 N.E.2d 897, 900 (Ind.Ct.App. 1992), trams. demied. A trial court's grant of summary judgment is "clothed with a presumption of validity," and the appellant bears the burden of demonstrating that the trial court erred. Rosi v. Business Furniture Corp., 615 N.E.2d 431, 434 (Ind.1993).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
672 N.E.2d 467, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1513, 1996 WL 653750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevenson-v-hamilton-mutual-insurance-co-indctapp-1996.