Aid Ins. Co. (Mut.) v. Chrest

• Decision Date: 20 July 1983
• Docket Number: No. 68689,68689
• Parties: AID INSURANCE COMPANY (MUTUAL), Appellee, v. Wesley Marvin CHREST and Frederick D. Herman, Appellants.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 437

336 N.W.2d 437

AID INSURANCE COMPANY (MUTUAL), Appellee, v. Wesley Marvin CHREST and Frederick D. Herman, Appellants.

No. 68689.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

July 20, 1983.

Dee A. Runnels of Coyle, Gilman & Stengel, Rock Island, Illinois, for appellant Herman.

J.R. Sokol of Sokol & Sokol, Maquoketa, for appellant Chrest.

David E. Schoenthaler of Schoenthaler, Roberg & Bartelt, Maquoketa, for appellee.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and McCORMICK, SCHULTZ, CARTER and WOLLE, JJ.

McCORMICK, Justice.

The question here concerns issue preclusion. Plaintiff Aid Insurance Company sought a declaratory judgment that it had no duty to defend or indemnify its insured Wesley Marvin Chrest in an action brought by Frederick D. Herman against Chrest arising from a shooting incident at Chrest's home. AID's homeowners policy excluded coverage for bodily injury "which is either expected or intended from the standpoint of the Insured." After trial of the declaratory judgment action, a jury returned special verdicts finding that the injury to Herman was neither expected nor intended by Chrest. Upon AID's motion for judgment notwithstanding the special verdicts, the trial court held, however, that both Chrest and Herman were precluded from asserting coverage because of Chrest's conviction upon his plea of guilty to a charge of assault with intent to commit murder in violation of Iowa Code section 690.6 (1977). Declaratory judgment was accordingly entered for AID. We affirm on Chrest's appeal and reverse and remand on Herman's appeal.

The shooting incident occurred at Chrest's home in Sabula on September 22, 1977. Chrest had been drinking and was armed with a .22 caliber rifle. His family called the police because of fear he might hurt himself or someone else. Herman is a state trooper who assisted the police in trying to persuade Chrest to come out of the house. Chrest fired the rifle through a window of the house and the bullet struck Herman in the head, causing serious injury.

Subsequently Chrest was charged with assault with intent to commit murder. He entered a plea of guilty to the charge and was sentenced. Herman separately sued Chrest for damages based on the shooting, first on a theory of intentional tort but later on a theory of negligence. AID brought the present declaratory judgment action to obtain an adjudication concerning its duty to defend and indemnify Chrest in Herman's lawsuit. When the jury returned its special verdicts finding that the injury was neither expected nor intended by Chrest, the court entered judgment for defendants on the coverage issue. Then AID moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict pursuant to Iowa R.Civ.P. 243, relying on this court's decision in Ideal Mutual Insurance Co. v. Winker, 319 N.W.2d 289 (Iowa 1982). When the trial court sustained the motion and entered judgment of non-coverage for AID, defendants appealed.

AID asserted issue preclusion against defendants for the first time in its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Defendants did not object to the timeliness of the assertion or the procedure through which it was urged. Because the question appears to have been tried by consent and does not involve the trial court's jurisdiction, we do not address either the timeliness or procedural issues. Instead we turn our decision on applicability of the doctrine of issue preclusion.

Before issue preclusion may be employed in any case, four prerequisites must be established: "(1) the issue concluded must be identical; (2) the issue must have been raised and litigated in the prior action; (3) the issue must have been material and relevant to the disposition of the prior action; and (4) the determination made of the issue in the prior action must have been necessary and essential to the resulting judgment." Hunter v. City of Des Moines, 300 N.W.2d 121, 123 (Iowa 1981). The doctrine is available when the parties in each action are the same. In addition, it is available defensively when the party against whom the doctrine is invoked was so connected in interest with one of the parties in the former action as to have had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the relevant claim or issue and be properly bound by its resolution. Id. It is available offensively in the circumstances delineated in Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 88 (Tent.Draft No. 2 1975). Hunter, 300 N.W.2d at 125. It is not available offensively when the defending party lacked full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the first action. Id.

In Winker, the court held that the second prerequisite for issue preclusion is satisfied by a guilty plea entered in accordance with the requirements of law, even though actual litigation does not occur. See 319 N.W.2d at 296. The plea precludes relitigation in a subsequent civil action of all issues necessarily determined by the conviction. Id. at 294. This includes the essential elements of the crime. Id. at 296.

AID invoked issue preclusion offensively in the present case in an effort to establish the applicability of the exclusionary provision of its homeowners policy against both Chrest and Herman. A specific intent to kill another person was an essential element of assault with intent to commit murder under Iowa Code section 690.6 (1977). State v. Barney, 244 N.W.2d 316, 318 (Iowa 1976). No dispute exists that Chrest's guilty plea was taken in compliance with law. Each defendant, however, contends issue preclusion was unavailable to AID in the facts of this case. Because their arguments differ, we treat them separately.

I. Chrest's appeal. Chrest seeks to distinguish Winker by asserting his guilty plea was motivated by a desire to avoid risk of conviction of a greater charge. He notes that the guilty-plea record shows his plea was entered in conformity with North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 91 S.Ct. 160, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970), which allows a guilty plea conviction despite protestations of innocence in these circumstances. The holding in Winker, however, does not depend on the accused person's motivation in entering the guilty plea nor does it require the factual basis for the conviction to be established by the person's admissions. It merely requires a valid plea. See 319 N.W.2d at 296. In fact, like Chrest, Winker sought to avoid issue preclusion in the subsequent civil action by alleging his plea was entered only because of the risk of conviction of a greater offense and not because he admitted the reduced charge. Id. at 291.

On Chrest's appeal this case is indistinguishable from Winker. We affirm the trial...