Title: Cooperative Fire Insurance Assn. v. Combs

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

COOPERATIVE_FIRE_INSURANCE_ASSN_V_COMBS.93-435; 162 Vt. 443; 648 A.2d 857

 Filed 05-Aug-1994

 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. 93-435


 Cooperative Fire Insurance Ass'n             Supreme Court

                                              On Appeal from
      v.                                      Franklin Superior Court

 Ronald Combs and Dudley F. Coy and           May Term, 1994
 Christine Weise, Co-Executors of
 the Estate of Lee Felch Coy


 David A. Jenkins, J.


 Charity A. Downs of Conley & Foote, Middlebury, for plaintiff-appellant

 A. Gregory Rainville of Franco & Rainville and Michael Rose (On the Brief),
    St. Albans, for intervenors-appellees Dudley F. Coy and Christine Weise,
    Co-Executors of the Estate of Lee Felch Coy



 PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.


      GIBSON, J.   Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment in superior court
 to determine its rights and duties in a wrongful death action brought
 against its insured, Ronald Combs, by the estate of Lee F. Coy.  The
 executors of the Coy estate intervened, and pursuant to stipulation, the
 superior court has certified to this Court a question regarding the coverage
 of plaintiff's policy for an intentional act committed when the actor is
 insane.
      Plaintiff Ronald Combs was charged with the shooting death of Lee Coy
 in June 1990.  He was determined by the court to be incompetent to stand
 trial, and at all subsequent reviews to date, he has been determined

 

 incompetent to stand trial.  For purposes of this proceeding, the parties
 have stipulated that Ronald Combs is insane and was insane on June 3, 1990,
 the day of the shooting.  He is presently hospitalized at the Vermont State
 Hospital in Waterbury.
      Plaintiff's insurance policy contains the following exclusionary
 clause:  "This policy does not apply to liability which results directly or
 indirectly from . . . 8. an intentional act of an Insured or an act done at
 the direction of an Insured . . . ."  In accordance with the stipulation,
 the superior court has certified the following question to this Court:

           Under an insurance contract where there is an exclusion
           under the liability coverage for "liability which
           results directly or indirectly from an intentional act
           of an insured," is there coverage for an intentional act
           done by insured while insane or incompetent?
 The stipulation that Combs was insane renders the phrase "or incompetent"
 superfluous, and we will limit our review to acts done while an insured is
 insane.  See In re W.H., 144 Vt. 595, 600,