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

• Decision Date: 03 June 1992
• Citation: 861 S.W.2d 834
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals
• Parties: Cynthia BROWN, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. J.C. PENNEY LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant/Appellant.

Page 834

861 S.W.2d 834

Cynthia BROWN, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. J.C. PENNEY LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant/Appellant.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee,

Western Section, at Jackson.

June 3, 1992.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 23, 1992.

Permission to Appeal Denied by

Supreme Court Oct. 26, 1992.

Ira M. Thomas, Thomas & Thomas, Attorneys, P.C., Memphis, for plaintiff/appellee.

Albert C. Harvey and Elizabeth L. Simpson, for defendant/appellant.

HIGHERS, Judge.

Plaintiff, Cynthia Brown, filed this lawsuit in the Circuit Court at Shelby County seeking to recover insurance benefits from the defendant, J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company under a life insurance policy on her husband. We granted the defendant's interlocutory appeal of the trial court's decision denying its motion for summary judgment.

I.

On March 16, 1989, J.C. Penney Life Insurance Company issued a life insurance policy to Cynthia Brown. This policy covered both Cynthia Brown and her family members. The policy contained an exclusion which stated that "no benefits shall be paid for loss caused by or resulting from: ... an injury occurring while covered person is intoxicated." The policy also provided that the term "intoxicated" was to be defined for purposes of the policy by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the loss occurred.

On March 18, 1989, the plaintiff's spouse, David Brown was killed in an auto accident. Brown's body was examined by the Shelby County Medical Examiner who determined that Brown's blood alcohol content at the time of the accident was 0.16% and his urine alcohol content was 0.18%.

After the accident the plaintiff, as her husband's beneficiary under the policy, applied for $50,000 in benefits, the amount listed in the policy for auto related deaths on a covered family member. The defendant denied plaintiff's claim for benefits, relying on the exclusionary language in the policy. Plaintiff filed the instant lawsuit seeking to recover the benefits under the policy. In response, the defendant moved for summary judgment and attached the affidavit of the Shelby County Medical Examiner which stated the blood and urine alcohol content of the decedent at the time of his death. The defendant asserted that T.C.A. § 55-10-408(b) creates a presumption that a person operating a motor vehicle with greater than a 0.10% blood alcohol level is driving under the influence of alcohol and that this statute defines "intoxication" under Tennessee law as required by the insurance policy. The defendant insisted that since the affidavit of the medical examiner established that the decedent had greater than a 0.10% alcohol level at the time of the accident, he was intoxicated under Tennessee law and, therefore, it was entitled to summary judgment under the exclusion in the insurance policy for losses occurring while the covered person is intoxicated. The trial court denied the defendant's motion and we granted the defendant's interlocutory appeal of the trial court's decision.

II.

The first issue we address is whether it is appropriate for the defendant to rely on the language of T.C.A. § 55-10-408(b) to establish that the decedent was intoxicated pursuant to the exclusionary language in the policy at the time of the loss. The policy language specifically states that intoxication "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." Under this language we must look to the laws of Tennessee defining intoxication to determine whether the decedent was intoxicated at the time of his death since the accident in which Brown died occurred in Tennessee.

Plaintiff concedes that T.C.A. § 55-10-408(b) is the only law in this jurisdiction regarding the question of whether a person is intoxicated upon the finding of a particular blood alcohol level. In McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1992), our Supreme Court recently approved the use of this statute in a jury instruction where the issue was whether one of the parties to a civil action was intoxicated at the time of an accident. Similarly, we believe that the presumption of intoxication created by this statute is also the definition of "intoxication" contemplated by the insurance policy at issue here.

Since the statute creates only a presumption of intoxication, however, we do not believe that a finding of a 0.10% blood alcohol conclusively establishes that the insured was intoxicated at the time of the loss. Instead, the statute may be used by the defendant to create a rebuttable presumption that the decedent was intoxicated at the time of the loss but the plaintiff may introduce evidence to overcome this presumption. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court may consider the definition of intoxication from T.C.A. § 55-10-408(b) in determining whether the decedent was intoxicated pursuant to the language of the insurance policy at the time of the accident; however, the plaintiff may also introduce evidence that the decedent was not intoxicated at the time, even though he had a blood alcohol level of greater than 0.10% at the time of the accident. If the presumption is not rebutted by the plaintiff then the defendant has conclusively established that the decedent was intoxicated as that term is defined by the laws in Tennessee. If, on the other hand, the plaintiff does put on evidence to rebut this presumption then the trier of fact must determine whether by reason of drinking intoxicants, the plaintiff did not have the normal use of his physical or mental faculties, and thus was rendered incapable of acting in a manner in which an ordinarily prudent and cautious person, in full possession of his faculties, using reasonable care, would act under like conditions.

III.

We must next consider whether the trial court properly denied the defendant's motion for summary judgment in light of our holding that the presumption of intoxication found in T.C.A. § 55-10-408(b) may be utilized to determine whether the decedent was intoxicated within the meaning of the insurance policy. The defendant argues that summary...