Benavides v. J.C. Penney Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 25 October 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-1355,94-1355
• Parties: Paubla BENAVIDES, Administrator of the Estate of Martin Benavides, Deceased, Appellant, v. J.C. PENNEY LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 352

539 N.W.2d 352

Paubla BENAVIDES, Administrator of the Estate of Martin Benavides, Deceased, Appellant, v. J.C. PENNEY LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 94-1355.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 25, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 17, 1995.

Dean T. Jennings of McGinn, McGinn & Jennings, Council Bluffs, for appellant.

John M. French and Frederick T. Harris of Kennedy, Holland, DeLacy & Svoboda, Council Bluffs, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and LARSON, CARTER, NEUMAN, and TERNUS, JJ.

TERNUS, Justice.

Martin Benavides died in his closed garage at the wheel of his parked car after spending ten hours at his favorite bar. The medical examiner concluded that Benavides died of carbon monoxide poisoning; alcohol ¹ intoxication was listed as a contributing factor. The district court ruled as a matter of law that Benavides' estate could not recover under a life insurance policy issued to Benavides by appellee, J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company. We agree the insurance policy's intoxication exclusion precludes recovery by the estate as a matter of law. Therefore, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment to the insurance company.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Because the district court decided this case on a motion for summary judgment, we review the whole record in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Farm & City Ins. Co. v. Anderson, 509 N.W.2d 487, 489 (Iowa 1993). The record contains the following undisputed facts.

J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company issued a life insurance policy to Martin Benavides. That policy contained an exclusion for death resulting from "an injury occurring while the [insured] is intoxicated." The policy was in effect on June 3, 1992, the date that Martin Benavides died.

Before his death, Benavides had been drinking alcohol for ten hours at a bar he typically frequented. At 1:30 a.m. he left the bar and apparently drove home without incident. As he drove into his garage, however, he grazed the garage door with his car, causing slight damage to the door and scrapes on the side of his car. He parked his car at such an unusual angle that the interior door between the garage and the house could not be opened.

On the afternoon of June 4, 1992, Benavides' fiancee discovered Benavides' lifeless body in the garage. Several facts are worth noting: the garage door was down; the ignition was on but the engine was not running; the headlights were off; the car radio was turned on, but not working because the battery was drained; Benavides was wearing his seat belt; and Benavides' feet were on the accelerator and the brake.

An autopsy conducted fourteen hours after the body was discovered revealed a blood alcohol level of .290. The physician conducting the autopsy noted that alcohol can form in decomposed bodies; however, the blood alcohol level here was so elevated that it indicated "significant" alcohol consumption before death. The medical examiner listed carbon monoxide poisoning from the car's exhaust as the cause of death, but he also found alcohol intoxication to be a contributing factor.

Benavides' fiancee stated that Benavides got drunk almost every night and it would not be unusual for him to pass out at the wheel. Moreover, witnesses interviewed by the police denied that Benavides had any motivation or desire to commit suicide.

Appellant, Paubla Benavides, as administrator of the Estate of Martin Benavides, sued J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company to collect benefits under the life insurance policy. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. The district court overruled the estate's motion and granted the insurer's motion, ruling as matter of law that the intoxication exclusion precluded recovery under the policy. The estate appealed.

II. Scope of Review.

We review a summary judgment ruling on error. Farm & City Ins. Co., 509 N.W.2d at 489. In doing so, we examine the record before the district court to decide whether a genuine issue of material fact exists and whether the court correctly applied the law. Id.

III. Intoxication.

The estate claims that a factual question exists concerning whether Benavides was intoxicated at the time of his death. A fact issue will preclude summary judgment when reasonable minds would differ on how to resolve that issue. Central Nat'l Ins. Co. v. Insurance Co. of N. Am., 522 N.W.2d 39, 42 (Iowa 1994). Therefore, we examine the record to determine whether reasonable minds would disagree on whether Benavides was intoxicated. Before we can do that, however, we must know the meaning of the term "intoxicated."

A. Meaning of the word "intoxicated." The life insurance policy defines the term "intoxicated":

INTOXICATED means that which is determined and defined by the laws and jurisdiction of that geographical area where the Loss or cause of Loss was incurred.

The policy defines the term "Loss" to include death. Therefore, the term "intoxicated" has the meaning given it by the laws of Iowa, the state where Benavides died. Brown v. J.C. Penney Life Ins. Co., 861 S.W.2d 834, 836 (Tenn.Ct.App.1992) (interpreting same definition to require the application of the laws of Tennessee--the location of the insured's death).

A ready source of statutory and case law concerning the meaning of "intoxicated" arises from Iowa's prohibition of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. See Iowa Code § 321J.2 (1995). This offense can be committed in two ways: (1) operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, id. § 321J.2(1)(a); or (2) operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of .10 or more, id. § 321J.2(1)(b). The estate argues that our cases interpreting the first alternative should supply the definition of "intoxicated," whereas the insurer contends that "intoxicated" is appropriately defined by the legal limit specified in the second alternative.

We reject the insurer's argument that "intoxicated" is the equivalent of having a blood alcohol content of .10 or more. Section 321J.2(1)(b) does not purport to define the term "intoxicated"; it merely sets forth an alternate way in which a person can commit the offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. We think the first alternative, operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, is more appropriately used here. The term "under the influence of alcohol" is synonymous with the phrase "while intoxicated." Cf. State v. Berch, 222 N.W.2d 741, 747 (Iowa 1974) ("the term 'under the influence of an alcoholic beverage' is synonymous with the term 'in an intoxicated condition' "); Robinson v. Hawkeye Commercial Men's Ass'n, 186 Iowa 759, 766, 171 N.W. 118, 120 (1919) ("under the influence of an intoxicant or narcotic" is equivalent to "intoxication"). Therefore, our cases interpreting and giving meaning to the first alternative, section 321J.2(1)(a), provide a definition of "intoxicated" under Iowa law for purposes of the insurance policy's intoxication exclusion.

A person is "under the influence of alcohol" and therefore intoxicated when one or more of the following are true:

(1) the person's reason or mental ability has been affected; (2) the person's judgment is impaired; (3) the person's emotions are visibly excited; and (4) the person has, to any extent, lost control of bodily actions or motions.

In re S.C.S., 454 N.W.2d 810, 814 (Iowa 1990); accord State v. Davis, 196 N.W.2d 885, 890 (Iowa 1972); State v. Stout, 247 Iowa 453, 456-58, 74 N.W.2d 208, 210-11 (1956); State ex rel. Cosson v. Baughn, 162 Iowa 308, 310-11, 143 N.W. 1100, 1101 (1913). No particular degree of intoxication is required. Stout, 247 Iowa at 458, 74 N.W.2d at 210-11. As we said in Cosson,

"if he is under the influence of liquor so as not to be ... himself, so as to be excited from it, and not to possess that clearness of intellect and that control of himself that he otherwise would have, he is intoxicated."

Cosson, 162 Iowa at 311, 143 N.W. at 1101 (quoting Elkin v. Buschner, 16 A. 102, 104 (Pa.1888)).

Our reliance on the general definition of "intoxication" developed under the first alternative of section 321J.2(1) should not imply that the blood alcohol level of the insured is irrelevant. To the contrary, the blood alcohol level of the insured at the time of injury will undoubtedly provide important evidence on whether the insured was intoxicated. We simply hold that under the policy language at issue here intoxication is determined by focusing upon the insured's reasoning and mental abilities, judgment, emotions and physical control. Many facts are potentially relevant, only one of which is the insured's blood alcohol level.

B. Existence of fact question. We now turn to the undisputed facts of this case to analyze whether reasonable minds could differ on whether Benavides was intoxicated at the time of his death. Benavides spent the ten hours preceding his death drinking at a bar. Although he drove home without incident, he hit the garage doorway with his car, damaging both the doorway and the car. He parked at such an odd angle in the garage that a person could not open the interior door between the garage and the house. He closed the garage door and remained seated in the car with the engine running until he was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes. These events were consistent with Benavides' routine practice of stopping at a bar after work and drinking to the point that he passed out in his car.

Although the record is silent as to Benavides' blood alcohol level at the time of death, autopsy results indicated "significant" alcohol consumption before death. The medical examiner concluded that alcohol intoxication contributed to Benavides' death. Finally, the record is lacking in any evidence that Benavides would have...