Court Opinion

ID: 9854026
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:59:30.05672+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:52.901303
License: Public Domain

Justice ERICKSON
specially concurring in the result:
I concur with the majority’s conclusion that the intentional act exclusion bars liability coverage of the Chacons for the intentional acts of their child when the damages are in excess of the supplemental policy limit of $250.1 In addition, I agree with the dissent's conclusion that the sever-ability clause creates separate insurable interests in each of the insureds. By writing separately, I intend to emphasize that, despite the severability clause, the exclusion expresses a clear intent to preclude coverage for liability on the part of an insured for the intentional acts of the other individual insureds. Spezialetti v. Pacific Employers Ins. Co., 759 F.2d 1189, 1141-42 (3rd Cir.1985); McCauley v. New Hampshire Ins. Co., 716 F.Supp. 718, 721 (D.Conn.1989). The language of the intentional act exclusion unambiguously expresses the intent to render the severability clause inapplicable to liability of one insured under the policy for the intentional acts of another insured. McCauley, 716 F.Supp. at 721.
In Arenson v. National Auto. and Cas. Ins. Co., 45 Cal.2d 81, 286 P.2d 816 (1955), the intentional act exclusion stated that “[tjhis policy does not apply ... to injury, sickness disease, death or destruction caused intentionally by or at the direction of the insured...” 45 Cal.2d at 82-83, 286 P.2d at 817. The court in Arenson *753held that the policy in that case did not exclude coverage for liability based on the intentional acts of a co-insured. Id. at 83-84, 286 P.2d at 818. The use of the word “any” in the Chacons’ homeowner policy dictates a different result than that reached in Arenson. See Allstate Ins. Co. v. Freeman, 432 Mich. 656, 691-93, 443 N.W.2d 734, 751-52 (1989).

. The supplemental policy provides coverage to the Chacons for intentional acts of an insured child under the age of thirteen to the extent of $250.