Allstate Ins. Co. v. Skelton

• Citation: 675 So.2d 377
• Parties: ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY v. Glenn E. SKELTON. 1941402.
• Decision Date: 02 February 1996
• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

Page 377

675 So.2d 377

ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY v. Glenn E. SKELTON.

1941402.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Feb. 2, 1996.

Carl Robert Gottlieb, Jr. and William W. Watts III of Reams, Philips, Brooks, Schell, Gaston & Hudson, P.C., Mobile, for Appellant.

Lawrence B. Voit and Thomas G.F. Landry of Silver & Voit, Mobile, for Appellee.

SHORES, Justice.

This case involves the question whether injuries suffered by Glenn E. Skelton arose "out of the ownership, maintenance or use" of an uninsured automobile as required for him to be covered under the terms of an automobile liability insurance policy issued to him by Allstate Insurance Company. We conclude that they did not.

FACTS

These facts, taken primarily from the trial court's order, are undisputed: On March 10, 1993, between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m., Skelton was driving his automobile south on Interstate Highway 65 in Mobile. He and his 16-year-old son Ian were returning from Birmingham, where they had attended the funeral of Skelton's father-in-law. A family friend, Elaine Mixon, and her 16-year-old son were also driving back to Mobile from the same funeral. They were traveling ahead of the Skelton vehicle on I-65. By prearrangement, the two vehicles were traveling together. As the Mixon vehicle approached the Moffat Road interchange, a third vehicle, driven by Milyce A. Wright and occupied by her husband Dell L. Wright as a passenger, pulled out from Moffat road onto the right south-bound lane of I-65 in front of the Mixon vehicle. The Wright vehicle began engaging in dangerous and reckless maneuvers on the highway, including slowing down abruptly and speeding up rapidly, for no apparent reason. This caused Mixon to slam on her brakes each time the Wright vehicle slowed down abruptly. There was moderate to heavy traffic on I-65 at the time. Mixon flashed her lights once at the Wright vehicle in front of her during these dangerous maneuvers. As soon as she could safely do so, Mixon pulled around the Wright vehicle on the left and passed it; thereupon, the Wright vehicle speeded up and passed the Mixon vehicle at a high rate of speed on the left shoulder of the highway, almost hitting a median barricade. Dell Wright, who was sitting in the passenger's seat, then started throwing objects out of his vehicle; some of those objects hit the Mixon vehicle. Mixon was not sure what the objects were and thought they may have been pieces of gravel or ice. The Wright vehicle then pulled alongside the Mixon vehicle, began sliding to its right toward Mixon, and forced the Mixon vehicle off the road onto the right shoulder of I-65 just north of the Airport Boulevard interchange.

The driver of the Mixon vehicle stopped to avoid colliding with the Wright vehicle, and the Wright vehicle stopped just in front of Mixon. Mixon was then holding her automobile telephone in her hand. Immediately after the two cars stopped, Dell Wright got out of his vehicle and walked in front of the Mixon vehicle. He stood in front of it holding a pistol, which he pointed at Mixon while he shouted obscenities at her and threatened to kill her. He smashed the windshield of Mixon's vehicle with the butt of the pistol he was brandishing.

Glenn Skelton, who had been traveling behind the Mixon vehicle, observed the dangerous and reckless movements of the Wright vehicle and tried to keep up with Mixon as she passed the Wrights. He saw an arm coming out of the passenger window of the Wright vehicle and making a throwing action.

He saw the Wright vehicle force the Mixon vehicle off the road. Skelton negotiated through the traffic and stopped ahead of the other two vehicles on the shoulder of I-65. After coming to a stop, he backed his vehicle and stopped three or four feet in front of the Wright vehicle. Skelton immediately got out of his car and walked to the rear, toward the Wright and Mixon vehicles, to assist Mixon. He saw Dell Wright menacing Mixon with the pistol, and he saw Mixon's broken windshield. Dell Wright turned and walked toward Skelton. When Skelton was even with the right rear wheel of the Wright vehicle, Dell Wright struck Skelton with a pistol on the left side of the face. As Skelton staggered and began to fall, Wright struck him again with the pistol in the left jaw. Skelton was dazed and only partially conscious. Milyce Wright was outside her vehicle at the time of the assault on Skelton. She and her husband got back into their automobile and drove off. Mixon dialed 911 on her automobile telephone; law enforcement and medical personnel arrived soon thereafter. Skelton suffered serious and painful injuries. He was flown to the Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham for specialized medical attention and was hospitalized for several months. He suffered skull fractures and damage to his sinuses and permanently lost the sight in his left eye. He still requires medical attention and still experiences pain on the left side of his face.

Dell Wright was subsequently convicted of second degree assault, menacing, and reckless endangerment, as a result of these events of March 10, 1993. His convictions have been affirmed on appeal, and he is presently incarcerated.

Allstate is Skelton's automobile insurance carrier. Skelton sued Allstate for benefits under the uninsured motorist coverage included in his Allstate automobile insurance policy. The Wrights were driving an insured vehicle, but their insurance carrier denied coverage. The trial court awarded uninsured motorist benefits based on Skelton's injuries resulting from the encounter with Dell Wright. Allstate appeals.

ISSUE

The issue here is whether, under these undisputed facts, Skelton's injuries arose "out of the ownership, maintenance or use of an uninsured auto." Only if they did is Skelton entitled to the benefits under the uninsured motorist coverage provided by his policy with Allstate.

DISCUSSION

When a judge in a nonjury case hears oral testimony, a judgment based on findings of fact based on that testimony will be presumed correct and will not be disturbed on appeal except for a plain and palpable error. Griggs v. Driftwood Landing, Inc., 620 So.2d 582 (Ala.1993); First National Bank of Mobile v. Duckworth, 502 So.2d 709 (Ala.1987). However, where the facts before the trial court are essentially undisputed and the controversy involves questions of law for the court to consider, the court's judgment carries no presumption of correctness. Beavers v. County of Walker, 645 So.2d 1365 (Ala.1994). Because no material facts are disputed and this appeal focuses on the application of the law to the facts, no presumption of correction is accorded to the trial court's judgment. Therefore, we review de novo the application of the law to the facts of this case. Beavers, supra; Lake Forest Property Owners' Ass'n v. Smith, 571 So.2d 1047 (Ala.1990).

Skelton's Allstate policy provides as follows regarding uninsured motorist coverage:

"We will pay damages for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death which a person insured is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an uninsured auto. Injury must be caused by accident and arise out of the ownership, maintenance or use of an uninsured auto."

The contract shall be construed liberally in favor of the insured and strictly against the insurer. Tyler v. Insurance Co. of North America, 331 So.2d 641 (Ala.1976). Exclusions are to be interpreted as narrowly as possible, so as to provide maximum coverage for the insured, and are to be construed most strongly against the insurance company This case is controlled by United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Lehman, 579 So.2d 585 (Ala.1990) ("Lehman I "). In Lehman I, the plaintiff, Lehman, was employed as a salesman at an automobile dealership. He agreed one day to accompany Mark McCauley, who purported to be a potential customer, to McCauley's home in order to pick up McCauley's automobile. Lehman understood that McCauley wanted to use his vehicle as a trade-in on a new car purchase. McCauley and Lehman left the dealership in a vehicle owned by the dealership, with McCauley driving. When they turned onto the street where McCauley lived, McCauley slowed the car, cut Lehman's throat with a switchblade, and said, "I'm going to kill you. You're going to die." After a struggle, Lehman succeeded in getting out of the car, and McCauley drove away. Lehman I, 579 So.2d at 585. Lehman and his wife sued their insurer, USF & G, seeking benefits under their uninsured motorist coverage. The USF & G policy required, for that coverage, that the insured's injuries "must result from the ownership, maintenance or use of an uninsured vehicle."

which drafted and issued the policy. Alliance Ins. Co. v. Reynolds, 494 So.2d 609 (Ala.1986); Employers Ins. Co. of Alabama v. Jeff Gin Co., 378 So.2d 693 (Ala.1979).

The trial court awarded uninsured motorist benefits to the Lehmans. This Court reversed, holding that, as a matter of law, because Lehman's injuries were the result of an independent criminal act by McCauley, they did not result from a "use" of the dealership automobile. Lehman I, 579 So.2d at 586. Therefore, they were not covered under the dealership's policy of insurance and--even assuming that for purposes of the uninsured motorist provisions of their own policy with USF & G, the dealership vehicle could be considered to be an "uninsured" vehicle--they were not entitled to recover uninsured motorist benefits. Id.

Like the stabbing in Lehman I, Dell Wright's battery on Skelton was an intervening act that the broke the causal connection between the use of the Wright automobile and the injury. A criminal act, such as the battery in this case, will break the causal chain because no reasonable standard would suggest that an automobile insurer intended to insure against such acts. When an insurance company writes an automobile policy, it covers foreseeable risks associated with the use of the covered automobile. Dell Wright's battery of Skelton...