Court Opinion

ID: 9761604
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:47:12.38611+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:24.967914
License: Public Domain

LONG, J.,
dissenting.
Like the Appellate Division, I would reverse the grant of summary judgment in favor of Harleysville. I do not view this as a case in which David’s intent can be presumed as a matter of law nor do I consider his essentially uncontroverted version of the events to warrant application of the “particularly reprehensible” conduct principle enunciated in Voorhees, supra, 128 N.J. at 184, 607 A.2d 1255. Indeed, the Appellate Division’s statement of the facts relevant to an inquiry under Brill, supra, 142 N.J. 520, 666 A.2d 146, reveal that they are equivocal at best on the critical matter of intent and that' the majority’s view requires us to
ignore David’s testimony as to his state of mind, his claimed desperate attempt to protect himself, everything that preceded the stabbing, and even the actual stabbing itself. As to that last point — the infliction of the knife wounds — it is significant that David described a swinging motion, with no attempt to stab and certainly no intent to stab in the heart or the stomach. Indeed, he says he thought he had cut Sabatelli’s wrist, and only learned of Sabatelli’s serious injury when someone else screamed and called it to his attention.
None of that evidence is refuted. There is no medical evidence describing the stab wounds, or any expert testimony indicating how the wounds were inflicted, their depth, the amount of force necessary to inflict them, or anything else which would contradict David’s version of the incident, (footnote omitted).
Similarly, nothing has been presented to contradict defendant’s version of Sabatelli’s aggression, the beating Sabatelli was inflicting on David, David’s being “terrified” of Sabatelli, and the practical impossibility of his avoiding the further confrontation which Sabatelli demanded. Under those circumstances, David’s swinging the knife as he described, for the purpose of warding off Sabatelli’s attack, could represent self-defense with no intention or expectation of inflicting an injury of any significant magnitude.
We do not, of course, hold that David’s version of the incident must be accepted. But we do conclude (particularly with no conflicting testimony or other evidence), *243that his story is not so improbable or unacceptable as to warrant rejection under the standard of Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520, 540, 666 A.2d 146 (1995). If David’s description of Sabatelli’s aggressiveness is accepted, then David’s state of mind is not difficult to comprehend, and if both those propositions are accepted, then David’s version of the actual stabbing is not so unlikely that a court must reject it and conclude that no rational jury could accept it. And finally, if David’s description of the incident is accepted, then the S.L. Industries and Karlinski tests do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that Sabatelli’s death was the “expected or intended” result of David’s actions.
I fully agree with that analysis and subscribe to the Appellate Division’s determination that “a trial is required to determine what took place on the evening in question, how Sabatelli’s wounds were inflicted, and what David’s intentions and expectations were in using the knife given him by Lieata.” Coverage should depend on the outcome of that trial.
I also subscribe to the Appellate Division’s reversal of the summary judgment entered in favor of Harleysville on the duty to defend. The sole basis for the summary judgment was that there is no duty to defend in the absence of a duty to indemnify. Because I believe resolution of the duty to indemnify should await the outcome of the trial, the duty to defend should not be disposed of in such a way. Burd v. Sussex Mut. Ins. Co., 56 N.J. 383, 389-90, 267 A.2d 7 (1970). For those reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Justice COLEMAN joins in this opinion.
For reversal and reinstatement — Chief Justice PORITZ and Justices STEIN, VERNIERO, LaVECCHIA, and ZAZZALI — 5.
For affirmance — Justices COLEMAN and LONG — 2.