Title: Cooperative Fire Insurance Assn. of Vermont v. Bizon

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

Cooperative Fire Insurance Assoc. of VT v. Bizon  (95-214); 166 Vt. 326; 
693 A.2d 722

[Filed 28-Mar-1997]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.

                                 No. 95-214

Cooperative Fire Insurance                        Supreme Court
Association of Vermont
                                                  On Appeal from
     v.                                           Addison Superior Court

Robert Bizon, James W. Ashcroft,                  March Term, 1996
Administrator of Estate of James R.
Ashcroft, James W. and Marta Ashcroft

Edward J. Cashman, J.

       Allan R. Keyes and Joseph H. Badgewick of Ryan Smith & Carbine, Ltd.,
  Rutland, for plaintiff-appellee

       James A. Dumont, Marybeth McCaffrey, and Sandra M. Lee and Mary Kay
  Lanthier, Law Clerks (On the Brief), of Keiner & Dumont, P.C., Middlebury,
  for defendants-appellants

PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.

       DOOLEY, J.  This appeal arises from a declaratory judgment action
  brought by plaintiff Cooperative Fire Insurance Association of Vermont
  against its insured, Robert Bizon, to seek a determination that it did not
  have to defend or indemnify Bizon in a civil action over the shooting death
  of James R. Ashcroft on Bizon's property.  Cooperative Fire subsequently
  added by motion James W. Ashcroft (hereinafter defendant), as administrator
  of James R. Ashcroft's estate and his parent.(FN1)  James W. Ashcroft is
  plaintiff in the underlying tort action against Bizon. After a trial
  without jury, the trial court found that Cooperative Fire did not have the
  duty either to defend or indemnify Bizon against the underlying tort claim. 
  Only defendant James W. Ashcroft has appealed.  We affirm.

       The facts are as follows.  Bizon owns and manages a bar in the City of
  Rutland.  For

 

  a period of time, he regularly stored liquor supplies in his garage at his
  North Clarendon home. As a result of several burglaries of the supplies,
  Bizon's son installed a motion monitor so that movement within the garage
  would turn on a radio in Bizon's bedroom.  Bizon also installed flood
  lights to illuminate the garage area and kept a loaded .357 magnum handgun
  in the house to protect against burglars.  At some time prior to March 17,
  1991, Bizon stopped putting liquor in the storage building and placed a
  sign on the garage giving notice that all the liquor had been removed.  He
  left the garage door unlocked and the flood lights unlit, but activated the
  motion alarm and kept the loaded handgun in the kitchen near the rear door.

       In the early morning of March 17, 1991, the motion alarm awakened
  Bizon.  He immediately rose from bed, armed himself with the loaded gun to
  confront the burglars he suspected were in the garage, and turned on the
  flood lights.  He did not call the police.  He placed himself near the rear
  of a parked Ford truck in front of the garage door and ordered those inside
  to come out.

       As the first two persons came running out of the garage door, Bizon
  yelled to them to stop and fired a warning shot into the air.  The two
  figures continued running away.  A third person appeared; Bizon ordered him
  to stop, and then fired in the direction of the doorway. This third person,
  who was James R. Ashcroft, started to follow the first two individuals. 
  Bizon shot twice at him.  One of the bullets struck Ashcroft's right hip,
  severing major blood vessels in his legs.  A fourth person then appeared at
  the door and surrendered, crawling towards Bizon on his hands and knees.

       As Ashcroft lay on the ground bleeding to death, he said to Bizon,
  "I'm shot, you hit me."  Bizon replied, "I shot you once and I'll shoot you
  again if you don't tell me who your buddies were."  Then Bizon called to
  his girlfriend, watching from inside the house, to phone the police.  The
  police arrived about eight minutes after the call and thirteen minutes
  after the shooting incident.  Medical help arrived too late to save
  Ashcroft's life.

       At the criminal trial, a Rutland County jury acquitted Bizon of
  involuntary manslaughter

 

  in the killing of Ashcroft.  Meanwhile, Bizon filed for bankruptcy.

       The lawyer for Ashcroft's family and estate notified Bizon that he
  would pursue a damage claim, and Bizon notified Cooperative Fire, which
  brought a declaratory judgment action in the Addison Superior Court to
  determine whether it was obligated to defend or indemnify Bizon.  Shortly
  thereafter, the Ashcrofts brought a wrongful death action in Rutland
  Superior Court against Bizon, alleging three theories of negligence: (1)
  Bizon's recklessness or negligence led to the armed confrontation that
  resulted in the killing, (2) Bizon shot at Ashcroft in the negligent belief
  he had a right to self-defense, and (3) Bizon's negligent delay in
  obtaining medical aid for the injured youth caused an otherwise avoidable
  death.

       Cooperative Fire joined the Ashcrofts in its declaratory judgment
  action seeking an injunction against pursuit of the Rutland liability suit
  while the coverage question was unresolved.  Both the declaratory judgment
  and wrongful death actions were delayed by the inability to obtain
  discovery from Bizon while his criminal case was pending and later by
  Bizon's bankruptcy filing.  The last barrier was removed when the
  bankruptcy court lifted its stay of the tort action to the extent of
  insurance coverage.  Although Cooperative Fire did not obtain an
  injunction, its action went forward first.

       At trial, plaintiff Cooperative Fire argued that the insurance policy
  contained exclusions from coverage claims for damages arising from the
  insured's intentional acts or from claims arising from the insured's
  business activities and that either or both of these exclusions applied to
  bar coverage of the Ashcrofts' civil suit.  Defendant Ashcroft denied that
  either exclusion applied because (1) Bizon acted involuntarily to fend off
  what appeared to be an unexpected attack on himself and his home, and (2)
  no business supplies were stored in the garage at the time of the incident. 
  Although Bizon did not actively participate in the trial, he supported
  plaintiff's position that the policy exclusions applied.

       The trial court held that the business exclusion did not apply because
  Bizon was not using the garage for business purposes at the time of the
  incident.  It held that the intentional acts

 

  exclusion applied because "Mr. Bizon deliberately fired the hand gun at Mr.
  Ashcroft several times for the purpose of hitting him with the bullet." 
  The court concluded that Cooperative Fire did not have to defend or
  indemnify Bizon against the Ashcroft claim.

       On appeal, defendant focuses exclusively on his claim that Bizon was
  negligent in shooting Ashcroft.  He contends that the trial court erred in
  finding the intentional act exclusion applied without finding that Bizon
  had the subjective intent to harm Ashcroft.  Plaintiff first challenges
  defendant's standing to appeal.(FN2)   On the merits, plaintiff argues that
  the court's finding that Bizon intended to shoot Ashcroft was sufficient to
  invoke the intentional act exclusion, without a finding that Bizon intended
  to harm Ashcroft.  Alternatively, plaintiff argues that coverage should be
  denied because the killing was not an "accident" as required for coverage
  under the policy.

       We turn first to the issue of standing.(FN3)   We note that this is a
  declaratory judgment action and in such an action "all persons shall be
  made parties who have or claim any interest which would be affected by the
  declaration, and no declaration shall prejudice the rights of persons not
  parties to the proceeding."  12 V.S.A. § 4721.  We also note that
  Cooperative Fire made defendant a party, initially so that it could seek a
  restraining order against defendant's prosecution of the wrongful death
  suit, but thereafter defendant participated as the only party opposing
  plaintiff's claim.  Further, we note that Bizon's bankruptcy action meant
  that the only method defendant had of collecting a judgment was from
  plaintiff, and that the Legislature has specifically authorized suits
  against insurance carriers to collect in such situations.  See 8 V.S.A.

 

  § 4203(3).

       We have no difficulty in holding that defendant has standing to appeal
  in these circumstances.  Ordinarily, a party may appeal if the party has
  some legal interest which may be, by the judgment appealed from, either
  enlarged or diminished.  See In re Estate of Walsh, 133 Vt. 429, 430, 341 A.2d 706, 706 (1975); see also In re M.C., 156 Vt. 642, 642, 590 A.2d 882,
  882 (1991) (party must be "aggrieved" by decision in order to appeal). 
  Generally, an intervenor, or third party, may appeal, by virtue of the
  party status, any issue on which the party is aggrieved.  See State v.
  Schaefer, 157 Vt. 339, 344, 599 A.2d 337, 341 (1991), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1077 (1992).

       The purpose of a declaratory judgment is "to declare rights, status
  and other legal relations whether or not further relief is or could be
  claimed."  12 V.S.A. § 4711.  Thus, "[a] person interested under a . . .
  written contract . . . may have determined any question of construction . .
  . arising under the . . . contract . . . and obtain a declaration of
  rights, status or other legal relations thereunder."  Id. § 4712.  The
  Declaratory Judgment Act is a remedial statute that must be construed
  liberally to effectuate its purpose.  See Poulin v. Town of Danville, 128
  Vt. 161, 163,