Court Opinion

ID: 9537653
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:20:59.402171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:52.712486
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent from the majority disposition in this case. I agree with the majority in affirming the summary judgment that there was no policy coverage in this case and, for that reason, a duty to defend any claim under the policy provisions relating to contractual liability and incidental contract coverage. I am like Justice Cardine in dissenting from that part of the opinion which holds that there was a duty to defend based upon the conclusional allegations in the complaint filed against the bank in federal court. I would affirm the summary judgment in toto, however.
It is clear to me that, when the relationship of parties to an action is founded in a business context, and they have made contracts concerning their obligations to one another, those contractual responsibilities *1094ought to be resolved as contractual matters. I shall always perceive it a mistake to create a tort claim as an overlay to a breach of contract. That has the effect only of confusing two very separate areas of the law. Consequently, when the claimants against the bank submitted simply a conclusional statement that the facts, which they had recited as demonstrating contractual breaches, arose out of negligence, I am satisfied that they did not, in their complaint, state a cause of action for negligence which would require a defense by the insurance company. In my view, the district court was entirely correct in granting the summary judgment as a matter of law.
I must depart from that aspect of Justice Cardine’s opinion where he agrees the case should be remanded for discovery to determine if there is an independent tort claim of bad faith. I adhere to the views I set forth in a dissenting opinion to McCullough v. Golden Rule Insurance Co., 789 P.2d 855 (Wyo.1990). This case simply exemplifies how we are stuck to the “Tar-Baby” and have not yet found a briar patch in which we can extricate ourselves from these situations.
I would affirm the summary judgment.