Court Opinion

ID: 9755632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:44:59.916997+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:09.808887
License: Public Domain

Justice CASTILLE,
concurring.
I concur in the result of the lead opinion, but not in its reasoning. I do not seriously doubt that considerations of public policy would warrant denying coverage here, where liability would be premised upon the putative insured’s deliberate criminal conduct in selling heroin.1 In my view, however, this case is resolvable, and the result is the same, by resort to bedrock principles of contract construction. Specifically, I would find that the deliberate conduct here, which would form the basis for homeowners’ insurance liability, did not consti*358tute an “accidental occurrence” which would trigger coverage under the plain language of the policy.2
As the lead opinion notes, the homeowners’ policy at issue here promises personal liability coverage for, inter alia, bodily injuries which are caused by a covered “occurrence.” The policy then unambiguously defines an occurrence as “an accident” which results in bodily injury or property damage. The unfortunate teenage victim in this case, Angela Smith, did not trip down the stairs in Michael Greenfield’s home, or fall upon a knife, or die in a fire. Rather, Smith and Greenfield engaged in a common, commercial transaction of a criminal nature, which just happened to occur in the home: Greenfield-delivered heroin to Smith in exchange for a quantity of marijuana and, possibly, a small amount of cash. Smith then voluntarily injected herself with the heroin, thereby causing her own death from heroin intoxication. Greenfield did not inject Smith with the drug; instead, the basis for his liability was premised upon the simple fact of his delivering the *359narcotic to Smith, and her later dying from it while still in Greenfield’s home.3
Whatever else Greenfield’s delivery to Smith may have been, it was not an accident. Smith wanted heroin; Greenfield accommodated and delivered it to her. Smith’s decision to inject herself with the heroin, as she had done in the past, likewise was not an “accident” for that act, too, was deliberate and voluntary. Following upon the heels of the intentional and illegal activities of both Greenfield and Smith, the fortuity of the fatal overdose, while tragic, can hardly fall into the category of a covered “accident.” As appellants themselves note:
“Accident” has been defined in the context of insurance contracts as “an event or happening without human agency or, if happening through such agency, an event which, under circumstances, is unusual and not expected by the person to whom it happens.” Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed.1990). “Accident” has also been defined as an “unintended and unforeseen injurious occurrence.” Black’s Law Dictionary (7th ed.1999). The Superior Court has defined an accident as an “untoward or unexpected happening.”
Brief of Appellants, 10 (Superior Court citation omitted).
The overdose here plainly resulted from human agency. Moreover, the prospect of heroin intoxication, including death from heroin intoxication, was no less plainly foreseeable. Although the overwhelming majority of heroin users do not die from a single injection of the narcotic, it nevertheless is an inherently dangerous drug and the risk of such a lethal result certainly is foreseeable. See Commonwealth v. Bowden, 456 Pa. 278, 309 A.2d 714, 718 (1973) (plurality opinion) (“although we recognize heroin is truly a dangerous drug, we also recognize that the injection of heroin into the body does not generally cause death”). The intravenous self-administration *360of illegally-purchased heroin (here, packaged in a bag ironically labeled, “Suicide”) is a modern form of Russian roulette. Indeed, that is one of the reasons the drug is outlawed and why its use, no less than its distribution, is so heavily punished.4
There having been no “accident,” there was no covered occurrence. I therefore agree with the plurality’s determination to affirm the Superior Court’s holding that Minnesota Fire does not have a duty to defend or indemnify Greenfield, albeit I concur only in the result because I arrive at that conclusion as a matter of contract construction, rather than resorting to an external ground for decision, such as public policy.

. I view the question of public policy exclusion more narrowly than the plurality does. Were I to reach the question, I would be more inclined to what appears to be the narrower view expressed in Mr. Justice Saylor’s Concurring Opinion.

. The plurality acknowledges this issue of contract interpretation but declines to reach it because appellee does not specifically forward it now, although it did argue the issue below. Plurality slip op. at 11-12 n. 6. The question of whether there was a covered "occurrence” under the policy, however, is appellants' lead argument. Appellants go to some length to argue that the decedent's death was a covered occurrence because it was an "accident.” Since the moving party has squarely joined the issue, and appellee prevailed below and therefore is not obliged to forward any claim, I believe this question of contract interpretation has been adequately presented even though appellee has confined itself to defending the more extreme, extra-contractual interpretations accepted by the Superior Court.
Moreover, where possible, I think it better to decide cases upon grounds narrower than "public policy,” and I would not permit the litigation decisions of the parties to oblige us to weigh in on avoidable questions of public policy. I liken this restraint to the settled rule which applies when a case presents both constitutional and non-constitutional grounds for decision; in that instance, courts will decide the matter on non-constitutional ground where possible. E.g. Wertz v. Chapman Township, 559 Pa. 630, 741 A.2d 1272, 1274 (1999) ("It is axiomatic that if an issue can be resolved on a non-constitutional basis, that is the more jurisprudentially sound path to follow”-). I realize that questions of public policy are not necessarily of constitutional dimension; nevertheless, since such questions require the judiciary to look to external, oftentimes subjective, and debatable matters, we better serve to confine ourselves to record-based decision-making, when such is possible.

. Appellants also alleged that Greenfield was negligent to the extent that he did not care for Smith later that evening and the next morning, although they do not pursue this point as separate grounds for limited relief. In any event, Greenfield's failure to inquire after Smith’s condition or to seek assistance for her may have been indifferent, or even callous, but it was hardly “accidental."

. The General Assembly has classified heroin as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is the most serious of designations, and carries the heaviest of punishments. See 35 P.S. § 780-104(l)(ii)(10). A drug falls within this schedule because of its “high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.” Id. § 780-104(1).