West ex rel. West v. Watson

843 So. 2d 565, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 1048
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided April 9, 2003·No. No. 37,100-CA·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

I .WILLIAMS, J.

Plaintiffs1 appeal from a summary judgment in favor of the defendant, Certain Interested Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London (“Lloyd’s”). The trial court held that an “intentional injury exclusion” provision precluded coverage for a shooting death which occurred on the property of the insured. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On August 15, 1999, Johnnie Watson (“Watson”) shot and killed Jimmy Lee West (iCWest”). The shooting occurred on the property of Watson’s mother, Beatrice, with whom Watson lived. West’s children sued Johnnie and Beatrice Watson and Ms. Watson’s homeowners’ insurance carrier, Lloyd’s.

Thereafter, the trial court granted Lloyd’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs appealed, and this Court reversed the judgment, remanding the case to the trial court to allow the plaintiffs to depose Watson. West ex re. West v. Watson, 35,278 (La.App.2d Cir.10/31/01), 799 So.2d 1189, writ denied, 01-3179 (La.2/8/02), 808 So.2d 140. Prior to the [567]*567taking of his deposition, Watson pled guilty to manslaughter. After Watson was deposed, Lloyd’s reurged its motion for summary judgment. The trial court again granted the motion and dismissed Lloyd’s from the lawsuit.

The insurance policy in question contains the following provisions:

DEFINITIONS

In this policy, “you” and “your” refer to the “named insured” shown in the Declarations and the spouse if a resident of the same household. “We,” “us,” and “our” refer to the Company providing this insurance. In addition certain words and phrases are defined as follows:
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3. “Insured” means you and residents of your household who are:
a. Your relatives; ...
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5. “Occurrence” means an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions, which results, during the policy period, in:
a. “Bodily injury”; or
b. “Property damage.”

Further, the policy contains an intentional injury exclusion for liability coverage. That exclusion provides:

SECTION II — EXCLUSIONS
1. Coverage E — Personal Liability and Coverage F — -Medical Payments to Others do not apply to “bodily injury” or “property damage”:
a. Which is expected or intended by one or more “insureds”...

Among the exhibits relied upon by Lloyd’s in seeking summary judgment was the Boykin colloquy entered when Watson pled guilty to manslaughter on January 18, 2001. Watson was originally charged with second degree murder.

The transcript of the guilty plea reflects, in part:

Court: Will the D.A. state the facts.
Mr. Edwards, Assistant District Attorney: Your Honor, on or 13about August 15th, 1999, Johnny Bell Watson, Jr., committed the offense of manslaughter; in that, he did with specific intent to either kill or to inflict great bodily injury upon Jimmy West did, in fact, kill Jimmy West on that date. And, at the time of the offense, it was committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of self-control and cool reflection; and that, at the time of the homicide, the Defendant’s blood had not actually cooled and an average person’s blood would not have cooled at the time the homicide was committed. Specifically, on that date, in Shreveport, Louisiana, the defendant is (sic) neighbors of Jimmy West. Mr. West fives across — lived across the street from the Defendant. There had been numerous occasions in the past where the defendant had called the police on Jimmy West regarding noise violation — or noise violations of parties that Jimmy West would have in his house.
On this particular date, the defendant had called the police on at least two occasions on that night regarding noise violations going on at the residence of Jimmy West.
On that night at approximately nine o’clock in the evening, the defendant was backing his car out of the driveway and stopped on the street along the curb. Jimmy West and a(sic) associate of Jimmy West, a Steven Anderson, observed the defendant in his vehicle.
They approached the defendant’s vehicle, and they were in that — they were [568]*568yelling and announcing in a loud language how upset they were that the defendant had called the police on them. And, as they approached the defendant’s vehicle, the defendant fired approximately five or six shots at the individuals. Three of these shots did hit Jimmy West, and it was the third of these shots that resulted in Jimmy West’s death, in that it went through and destroyed his kidney, and he died of blood loss from that event.
The defendant was later interviewed by the police detectives. He stated that he never saw a weapon on either individual. He said that Jimmy West was holding his hand funny and he might have a weapon, but he never saw a weapon. He admitted that he never gave any threats or warnings to either individual to get away from his car. He just started shooting as they approached his vehicle.
He also admitted that these individuals had called him names | ¿before in the past and no violence had ever occurred to him before from these two individuals. He also admitted to firing as they were also in the process of running from his vehicle. All these facts occurred in Caddo Parish.
Court: Are those facts correct?
Johnnie B. Watson, Jr. (Watson): Yes, sir.
Court: Is your decision to plead guilty your own decision?
Watson: Yes, sir.
Court: Has anyone forced you or coerced you to plead guilty?
Watson: No, sir.
Court: Do you understand and have your attorneys ... explained to you the nature and elements of the crime of manslaughter?
Watson: Yes, sir.
Court: Do you understand that is what you are pleading guilty to?
Watson: Yes, sir.
Court: Have they also explained to you the nature of the crime of second degree murder, which you were originally charged with?
Watson: Yes, sir.
Court: Do you have any questions about what you are pleading guilty to?
Watson: No, sir.
Court: Do you have any questions about anything?
Watson: No, sir.

At his September 5, 2002 deposition, the attorneys questioned Watson about the shooting incident. Watson testified that he had just backed out of his mother’s driveway and on his way to work, when he saw | sJimmy West and another man, Steve Anderson, break out of a crowd of nine or ten people and begin walking toward him.

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West ex rel. West v. Watson, 843 So. 2d 565, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 1048 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

843 So. 2d 565 (West ex rel. West v. Watson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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WEST EX REL. WEST v. Watson
843 So. 2d 565 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)