Blanchard v. Peerless Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 11 September 1991
• Docket Number: No. 91-1421,91-1421
• Citation: 958 F.2d 483
• Parties: Richard BLANCHARD, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. PEERLESS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 483

958 F.2d 483

Richard BLANCHARD, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. PEERLESS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 91-1421.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard Sept. 11, 1991.

Decided March 5, 1992.

Gary Yesser with whom Yesser, Jessup & Green, Providence, R.I., was on brief, for plaintiff, appellant.

Raymond A. LaFazia with whom Gunning, LaFazia & Gnys, Inc., Providence, R.I., was on brief, for defendant, appellee.

Before TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, TIMBERS, Senior Circuit Judge, ^* and CYR, Circuit Judge.

CYR, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Richard Blanchard appeals from a summary judgment dismissing his third-party beneficiary claim under a homeowners policy issued to James and Ann Brown by defendant Peerless Insurance Company ("Peerless"). The district court determined, as a matter of law, that the homeowners' son, Paul Brown, was not a "covered person" within the meaning of the Peerless policy, because he was not a "resident" of the Brown family household at the time of the shooting incident which is the subject of the third-party beneficiary claim. We must scrutinize Rhode Island law for the substantive criteria controlling our de novo determination whether the record before the district court precluded reasonable disagreement as to the meaning of the insurance policy provision relating to "residency" and foreclosed any trialworthy "residency" issue. We conclude that summary judgment was not warranted.

I BACKGROUND ¹

In November 1986, following a disagreement with his parents, nineteen-year-old Paul Brown left the Brown family home, where he had resided continuously for eleven years, and moved into a room rented from a friend. Over the next ten months, which his mother characterized as a "phase in-phase out period," Paul worked intermittently as a part-time plastering "subcontractor" and consistently maintained regular contacts with the family home. According to his mother, he continued to keep "a lot of" clothing and other personal belongings (e.g., skis, guns) in the family home bedroom he had occupied for years. He used the Brown family home address on his driver's license, car registration and tax returns, received some mail (e.g., bank statements) at the family home address, and retained a key to the family home. Paul visited his parents at least twice a week to help with household chores and for family meals, and remained overnight on Christmas Eve 1986.

During a visit to the family home in August 1987, Paul Brown shot plaintiff Richard Blanchard with a pellet gun he had retrieved from his bedroom in the family home. Three weeks after the shooting incident, Paul moved from the rented room into an apartment he thereafter shared intermittently with his girlfriend. Sometime later he opened a new bank account, once again using the family home address.

Following an unsuccessful state court tort action against Paul's parents, and after obtaining an uncollectible default judgment against Paul, Richard Blanchard brought the present action under the Peerless homeowners policy, which defines the term "insured" as including any family member who is a "resident" of the insured premises. Peerless moved for summary judgment on the ground that Paul was not a "resident" of the Brown household at the time of the shooting incident in August [R]esidence is sometimes an elusive concept. It has two components. One is physical presence and the other is intent which certainly involves a state of mind.... This case arises in a somewhat unusual posture because normally the two are in conflict ... and the party in question is claiming an intent that is contrary to what the facts suggest. Here though, both factors point in the same direction. Paul Brown contends that it was his intent to have permanently left his parents' home ten months before this incident occurred.... [T]he objective facts seem to overwhelmingly support that contention. We would be in a different situation I think if there were any objective facts indicating otherwise but there simply are none.... So it seems to the court that although in many cases state of mind is a factual question that can't be resolved on a motion for summary judgment, in the unique circumstances of this case, that is not so and there is not enough evidence that would create an issue of fact to be determined by the jury. (emphasis added).

                1987.   The motion for summary judgment was submitted on the deposition testimony given by Paul and his parents in the earlier state court proceedings.   Paul's deposition testimony categorically disavowed any intention to live with his parents after November 1986.   In granting summary judgment for Peerless, the district court stated
                

II DISCUSSION

Appellant Blanchard contends that summary judgment was inappropriate because two jury issues material to the "residency" determination remained in genuine dispute. First, since subjective intent may be relevant to the "residency" determination under Rhode Island law, Blanchard argues that it was for the jury, not the court, to determine the credibility of Paul's testimony that he had no intention to return and reside in the Brown household. See, e.g., Maiorana v. MacDonald, 596 F.2d 1072, 1076-77 (1st Cir.1979) (summary judgment generally inappropriate where "state of mind" is a material issue). Second, Blanchard argues that the ultimate determination--whether a particular set of undisputed circumstances is sufficient to establish "residency"--represents primarily an issue of fact for the jury, not a question of law for the court. Since there was considerable circumstantial evidence that Paul continuously maintained significant contacts with the Brown family household between November 1986 and August 1987, Blanchard argues that the jury should have been permitted to determine what reasonable inferences were to be drawn from the objective circumstantial evidence, notwithstanding Paul's disavowal of any intention to resume residence in the family household.

A. "Residency" under Rhode Island law

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, employing the same standards the district court must utilize. Pedraza v. Shell Oil Co., 942 F.2d 48, 50 (1st Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 993, 117 L.Ed.2d 154 (1992). Summary judgment is warranted where the record, viewed most favorably to the nonmoving party, reveals that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Siegal v. American Honda Motor Co., 921 F.2d 15, 17 (1st Cir.1990). "[T]he mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment...." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (emphasis in original). Moreover, "the materiality determination rests on ... the substantive law's identification of which facts are critical and which facts are irrelevant...." Id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. at 2510.

The parties are in agreement that Rhode Island law controls our interpretation of the operative policy term: "residents of your household." The Rhode Island Supreme Court has described the procedure governing the "residency" determination as follows The meaning of the term "residence" or "resident" is a mixed question of law and fact. In order to determine if a person is a resident of a particular household, the court must consider whether in the totality of the circumstances that person maintains a physical presence in the household with intent to remain for more than a mere transitory period, or that person has a reasonably recent history of physical presence together with circumstances that manifest an intent to return to the residence within a reasonably foreseeable period.

Aetna Life & Cas. Co. v. Carrera, 577 A.2d 980, 985 (R.I.1990) (emphasis added). Under Carrera, the focus of the relevant "residency" determination is on the time of the incident giving rise to the claim asserted under the insurance contract. ² Id. Among the relevant general criteria are: (1) the amount of time spent in the residence; (2) the nature of the living arrangements; (3) the types of activities undertaken in the residence; and (4) the person's intentions regarding the length and nature of the stay. See id. at 984 (quoting Flather v. Norberg, 119 R.I. 276, 377 A.2d 225, 229 (1977)).

Under the Carrera decision, as well as Barricelli v. American Universal Ins. Co., 583 A.2d 1270 (R.I.1990), the only extant Rhode Island Supreme Court cases dealing with the insurance contract term "resident of the household," the court has identified, expressly or impliedly, numerous relevant circumstances which may be material to the "residency" determination. ³ Summary judgment is unwarranted if the existence of one or more of these, or other, material factors is in genuine dispute, unless resolution of the dispute by the factfinder could not affect the ultimate "residency" determination. Therefore, we next consider the nature of the ultimate "residency" determination under Rhode Island law and by whom it is to be made.

In a number of jurisdictions, the "residency" determination is considered a mixed question of law and fact only so long as the material facts remain in dispute, but becomes a pure question of law for the court once all that remains to be decided is whether the competing circumstantial evidence not in dispute is sufficient to permit a definitive ruling under the governing residency criteria. See, e.g., Willis v. Allstate, 88 Md.App. 21, 591 A.2d 896, 899 (1991) (summary judgment review) (citing Carrera, 577 A.2d 980, 985 (R.I.1990)) (quoting Hamilton v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 364 So.2d 215, 218 (La.App.1979)) (other citations omitted); see also Trezza v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 519 So.2d 649, 650 (Fla.App.1988) (whether undisputed facts "fit within the policy definition is a question of law that may be decided...