Court Opinion

ID: 9597784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:02:50.586166+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:39.317935
License: Public Domain

CARDINE, Chief Justice,
dissenting, with whom BROWN, Justice, Retired, joins.
The object of a summary judgment motion is to separate pretended or merely formal disputes from those which are genuine and substantial. Thus, the bare assertion that an issue exists with regard to some material fact should be insufficient to defeat such a motion. Johnson v. Soulis, 542 P.2d 867, 871 (Wyo.1975). Neither should purely conclusory statements concerning ultimate facts suffice to raise a genuine issue for trial; the party resisting the motion must challenge the movant’s allegations by setting forth specific facts which permit the fact finder to infer those ultimate facts. Blackmore v. Davis Oil Co., 671 P.2d 334,336-37 (Wyo.1983); Bancroft v. Jagusch, 611 P.2d 819, 821 (Wyo.1980).
Alleging that it was relieved of its duties to defend and indemnify by a policy provision excluding coverage for Morris’ intentional acts, the movant insurance company set forth facts to show that Morris intended to assault Sanchez. Those facts indicated that such intent commenced prior to *1216Morris’ consumption of alcohol and continued unabated until the hammer fell on his magnum handgun. Sanchez offered, in response, the merely chimeric possibility that Morris could not form the intent to commit that battery because he was too drunk to have done so. While Sanchez offered evidence that Morris had been affected to some extent by his drinking, he offered nothing to show, in the face of much evidence to the contrary, that Morris was sufficiently intoxicated so as to destroy his ability to form the requisite intent. The whole purpose of a summary judgment is defeated if a party is permitted to transform his categorical assertion of ultimate facts into a genuine issue without some evidentiary support. Maxted v. Pacific Car & Foundry Co., 527 P.2d 832, 834 (Wyo.1974).
In order to show that a genuine and substantial issue exists with regard to Morris’ capacity to expect or intend the injuries he caused, Sanchez must raise more than a metaphysical doubt that such capacity was present. Though he is entitled to the benefit of every reasonable doubt, he is not entitled to prevail by raising merely a slight doubt. See Cordova v. Gosar, 719 P.2d 625, 636 (Wyo.1986). He must set forth facts from which reasonable minds could conclude that Morris was incapable of forming a tortious intent. Id. at 639; Fegler v. Brodie, 574 P.2d 751, 753 (Wyo.1978). Because the record in this case will not support a reasonable conclusion that Morris’ acts were unintentional, I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that an issue of fact exists with regard to coverage under this insurance policy.
The record establishes that, for some two months prior to the evening of the shooting, Morris had been distraught over his grandchild’s molestation by Sanchez. His anguish had been aggravated that evening by the imminence of Sanchez’s hearing in that matter and his perception that Sanchez would go unpunished. At some time between 4:30 and 5:30 that evening Morris began drinking. Over the next hour and a half he consumed roughly one half-pint of bourbon. During that time, but before he and his wife sat down for dinner at 6:45, Morris expressed doubts that Sanchez would be punished and suggested he would have to take that matter into his own hands. His wife became so alarmed she sought the assistance of their daughter to distract him from Sanchez.
Some time after finishing his evening meal, Morris went outside, followed by his wife and daughter. He told his wife that Sanchez would have to be killed, and ordered his family to return to the house. His wife called the police. In the meantime, Morris took a .357 magnum revolver from his pickup truck, called Sanchez from his home across the street and, when Sanchez approached to within a distance of approximately five feet, shot him in the face with the revolver. Morris then returned the gun to his truck, leaned against his wife’s car, lit a cigarette, and waited for the police to arrive. During all of the evening’s events, witnesses observed nothing but minor and isolated signs of Morris’ intoxication. Indeed, Morris admitted that, though he felt the effects of the bourbon, he was not drunk. The record clearly indicates that throughout his conversations with his wife, his daughter, and the responding police officers, Morris appeared lucid, rational and unimpaired.
Such facts plainly show the intentional nature of Morris’ conduct. Only by purely unbridled speculation could a reasonable mind conclude otherwise. Sanchez has merely shown that Morris was drinking. The issue of material fact which Sanchez purportedly raises is not whether Morris was affected by alcohol, but whether that effect was so great that Morris acted without the intent to do so. The undisputed facts presented on the summary judgment motion do not even present an issue. Morris exhibited neither extreme intoxication nor an inability to control his cognitive functions. Thus, Sanchez has suggested no reasonable grounds to conclude that Morris’ conduct was unintentional, and he has not carried his burden with respect to appellee’s motion. I would affirm.