Cole v. State Farm

• Decision Date: 14 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 92,92
• Citation: 359 Md. 298,753 A.2d 533
• Parties: John E. Jackson COLE v. STATE FARM MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

753 A.2d 533

359 Md. 298

John E. Jackson COLE v. STATE FARM MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. 92, Sept. Term, 1999.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 14, 2000.

Cary J. Hansel (Timothy F. Maloney of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., on brief), Greenbelt, for petitioner.

Charles C. Bowie (Ryan P. Richie, on brief), Lanham, for respondent.

Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL and THEODORE G. BLOOM (retired, specially assigned), JJ.

HARRELL, Judge.

William Dawson Cave shot and killed Sharyn Cole on 17 September 1994 while she was seated in her parked van in the driveway of his Brandywine, Maryland, home. As a result, John Eddy Jackson Cole (Petitioner), husband of Ms. Cole, submitted, as personal representative of her estate, a claim for accidental death benefits under Ms. Cole's automobile liability policy written by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm). State Farm (Respondent) denied coverage. Petitioner then filed a breach of contract claim against Respondent in the District Court of Maryland sitting in Prince George's County. Upon Respondent's request for a jury trial, the case was transferred to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County. The Circuit Court granted Respondent's motion for summary judgment, concluding as a matter of law that Ms. Cole's death was not the result of an "accident" within the meaning of that term as used in the policy. In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed. At Petitioner's request, we granted a writ of certiorari¹ to determine whether Ms. Cole's death was the result of an "accident."²

BACKGROUND

The facts of this case are not in dispute. On 17 September 1994, Petitioner and Ms. Cole traveled, in Ms. Cole's 1994 Ford Van, to the home of William Dawson Cave.³ Mr. Cole drove the van. Petitioner and Ms. Cole's children, Erica (Age 5) and Cheyanne (Age 1) occupied the rear seat of the van. The purpose of the trip was to pick up Catherine Morgan Cole, Petitioner's daughter from his previous marriage to Heather Cave, for a previously scheduled visitation. Heather Cave was Mr. Cave's daughter.

After Petitioner pulled into Mr. Cave's driveway, he left the engine of the van idling and exited the van to approach the house. When Petitioner was only a few steps away from the van, he encountered his former father-in-law. Mr. Cave produced a handgun and shot Petitioner two times. Petitioner retreated to the van and, as he was opening the driver side door, Mr. Cave shot Petitioner again. Mr. Cave then circled the van toward Ms. Cole's side of the vehicle. In her panic, she was unable to release her seat belt. Mr. Cave fired two shots at Ms. Cole from close range through the passenger window. Mr. Cave then shot and killed himself. Petitioner survived the attack, but Ms. Cole died from her gunshot injuries. Cheyanne received minor injuries from flying glass. Fortunately, Erica was unharmed.

At the time of the shooting, State Farm had in effect a policy of insurance, naming Ms. Cole as the insured, covering her van. The provision of the policy that is relevant to this appeal is the "Death, Dismemberment, and Loss of Sight" clause in Section V of the policy. Section V provides, in pertinent part:

We [Respondent] will pay the amount shown in the schedule that applies for death, or loss, caused by accident. The insured has to be occupying or be struck by a land motor vehicle or trailer. The death or loss must be the direct result of the accident and not due to any other cause. The death or loss must occur within 90 days of the accident.

(Emphasis in original). The amount of coverage for accidental death was $10,000.

On 13 January 1997, Petitioner, acting as the personal representative for his wife's estate, filed a claim with Respondent requesting payment pursuant to Section V of his wife's insurance policy. By letter dated 16 January 1997, Respondent denied Petitioner's claim. The reason given was that, relying on DeJarnette v. Federal Kemper Ins. Co., 299 Md. 708, 475 A.2d 454 (1984), the insurer did "not feel that the injuries sustained by Sharyn K. Cole which resulted in her death, were the result of an accident." Essentially, State Farm viewed the cause of Ms. Cole's death as independent of the use of the covered vehicle.

Petitioner then filed a complaint in the District Court on 6 March 1997 alleging that Respondent breached the insurance contract by refusing to pay the accidental death benefit. He sought $10,000 in damages. Respondent requested a jury trial on 29 May 1997 and the case was transferred to the Circuit Court on 12 June 1997.

Petitioner filed a motion for summary judgment on 18 March 1998. In his motion, Petitioner pointed out that the parties agreed that Ms. Cole's insurance policy was in effect at the time of the incident and that she was seated in her van, with the engine running, when she was shot fatally. He asserted that the only issue in the case was whether his wife's death was caused by an "accident" within the meaning of the term in the relevant policy coverage. Petitioner argued that the incident which caused his wife's death was an "accident" because she did not anticipate that she would be murdered while waiting in the van in Mr. Cave's driveway.

On 16 April 1998, Respondent filed an opposition to the Petitioner's motion for summary judgment.⁴ Respondent admitted that when Ms. Cole was murdered her van was insured under a valid State Farm policy and that she was an occupant of the insured vehicle at the time Mr. Cave shot her. Respondent contended, however, that Maryland case law requires a casual connection between the use of a vehicle and the claimant's death before a court may declare liability under the policy. Respondent asserted that there was no connection between Mr. Cave's violent acts and Ms. Cole's use of her van. The fact that she was seated in her van when she was murdered, Respondent suggested, is not enough to impose liability under the policy.

In an order dated 21 May 1998, the Circuit Court denied Petitioner's motion for summary judgment and granted summary judgment in favor of Respondent, holding that:

the word "accident" as used in Section V of the applicable insurance policy ... is defined in the typical understanding of the word and is not given the liberal definition provided under the uninsured motorist coverage, and because the facts of this case do not support the argument that Sharyn Kae Cole's death was "caused by accident" as stated in Section V of the applicable policy.

Petitioner filed post-judgment motions, within ten days of the docketing of the order granting summary judgment, pursuant to Md. Rule 2-534. The Circuit Court denied those motions on 17 July 1998.

Petitioner noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals on 4 August 1998.⁵ The intermediate appellate court set forth two alternative reasons for its affirmance of the Circuit Court's judgment. Relying on an excerpt from DeJarnette v. Federal Kemper Ins. Co., 299 Md. 708, 475 A.2d 454 (1984), the court determined a claimant may not recover under an automobile liability insurance policy when the injury inflicted upon the claimant while situated in an automobile was caused by force or conduct not related to the use of the automobile. The court also explained, as an alternative basis, that "whether or not an injury is accidental has been held determinable by the state of mind of the person who inflicts the injury, rather than by that of the injured person," quoting from Glens Falls Ins. Co. v. American Oil Co., 254 Md. 120, 127-28, 254 A.2d 658, 663 (1969). Viewing the 17 September 1994 incident from Mr. Cave's perspective, rather than Ms. Cole's, the court concluded that Ms. Cole's death "in no way qualified as an `accident' within the context of the [her] automobile insurance policy."

ANALYSIS

I.

Before we consider the merits of this appeal, we set forth the principles that will guide our interpretation of the language of the insurance policy in question. Our primary task in interpreting an insurance policy, as with any contract, is to apply the terms of the contract itself. See Chantel Assoc. v. Mount Vernon Fire Ins. Co., 338 Md. 131, 142, 656 A.2d 779, 784 (1995)

; Harford County v. Harford Mut. Ins. Co., 327 Md. 418, 434, 610 A.2d 286, 294 (1992); Mitchell v. Maryland Casualty Co., 324 Md. 44, 56, 595 A.2d 469, 475 (1991); Pacific Indem. Co. v. Interstate Fire & Cas. Co., 302 Md. 383, 388, 488 A.2d 486, 488 (1985). We look first to the contract language employed by the parties to determine the scope and limitations of the insurance coverage. See Chantel Assoc.,

338 Md. at 142,

656 A.2d at 784; Kendall v. Nationwide Ins. Co., 348 Md. 157, 165, 702 A.2d 767, 771 (1997). When interpreting the words of a contract, we seek to give the words their "customary, ordinary, and accepted meaning." Mitchell, 324 Md. at 56,

595 A.2d at 475. In addition, we "examine the character of the contract, its purpose, and the facts and circumstances of the parties at the time of execution." Pacific Indem.,

302 Md. at 388,

488 A.2d at 488.

If the meaning of the terms of the insurance policy are plain and unambiguous, we will determine the meaning of the terms of the contract as a matter of law. See id. at 389, 488 A.2d at 489. If the terms are ambiguous, however, we will look to evidence from extrinsic sources such as dictionaries or an interpretation of the term employed by one of the parties before the dispute arose. See id. A term of a contract is ambiguous if, to a reasonably prudent person, the term is susceptible to more than one meaning. See Pacific Indem., 302 Md. at 389, 488 A.2d at 489; St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Pryseski, 292 Md. 187, 198, 438 A.2d 282, 288 (1981); Truck Ins. Exch. v. Marks Rentals, 288 Md. 428, 433, 418 A.2d 1187, 1190 (1980).

Turning to the policy at issue in this case, we note that it is, in our experience, somewhat unusual to find the type of first pa...