McAfee v. Transamerica Occidental Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 July 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:99-CV-01975-CAP.,1:99-CV-01975-CAP. |
| Citation | 106 F.Supp.2d 1331 |
| Parties | Angela MCAFEE, individually, and Angela McAfee, as next friend of, as natural guardian of, and as guardian of the property of David Russell McAfee, Jr., Brandon Charles McAfee, and Michael Chase McAfee, minors, Plaintiffs, v. TRANSAMERICA OCCIDENTAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia |
Ronald Arthur Lowry, Marietta, GA, for Plaintiffs.
H. Sanders, Jr., Carter & Ansley, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant.
The plaintiffs brought the instant breach of contract action, alleging that the defendant failed to pay them benefits due under an accident and death insurance policy. The matter is currently before the court on the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and the defendant's cross-motion for summary judgment. In analyzing a summary judgment motion, the court resolves all issues of fact in favor of the non-movant. See Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480 (11th Cir.1996). Here, because both parties have moved for summary judgment and the court finds in favor of the defendant, it states the facts of the case in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. Therefore, the facts, as stated below, may not prove to be the facts that would be established at trial. See Hartsfield v. Lemacks, 50 F.3d 950, 951 (11th Cir.1995) (citing Rodgers v. Horsley, 39 F.3d 308, 309 (11th Cir.1994)).
One of the plaintiffs, Angela McAfee, is the widow of David Russell McAfee, and, she, along with her children, brought this action in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to recover accidental death benefits payable to them for the death of her husband. The defendant removed the case to this court on the basis of federal question jurisdiction, specifically the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001, et seq., which governs the insurance policy. See 28 U.S.C. § 1331.
On January 1, 1997, the defendant issued a group policy to the Lockheed-Martin Corporation, Mr. McAfee's employer (the "Policy"). The Policy provided accidental death and dismemberment benefits to eligible employees, including Mr. McAfee, as part of an employee welfare benefit plan. The plaintiffs were the beneficiaries of Mr. McAfee's coverage. The Policy provided that benefits were payable for "losses resulting directly and independently from all other causes from bodily injuries caused by an accident." The Policy does not define the term "accident," but, rather, provides the following exclusions:
This Policy does not cover loss caused by or resulting from any one or more of the following:
A. Intentionally self-inflicted injuries
B. Suicide or any attempted suicide, while sane or insane; ...
C. Illness, disease, bodily or mental infirmity....
In August 1998, the defendant received the plaintiffs' claim for accidental death benefits under the Policy as the result of Mr. McAfee's death on May 11, 1998. The death certificate identified the immediate cause of death as "Multiple Gunshot Wounds of the Chest and Back." A newspaper article submitted with the claim form provided:
A Lawrenceville man who died Monday in a hail of police bullets was devoted to his family and reeling at the prospect of divorce, his mother said.
But police who responded to a reported armed robbery at a Windy Hill Road convenience store knew only that David Russell McAfee, 37, had a rifle, and that he shot at them.
The officers returned fire, and when the shooting stopped, McAfee was dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Only later did detectives learn that McAfee had twice attempted suicide in the past year, authorities said.
Just after midnight Monday morning, police said McAfee, carrying a lever-action rifle, approached a clerk at the BP convenience store. He demanded beer, but the clerk locked the door and called 911, said Marietta police Lt. Wayne Kennedy. As officers arrived, McAfee jumped into his van and drove to the nearby Crab House Restaurant on Cobb Parkway, where police boxed him in, Kennedy said.
Officers could see McAfee sitting in the back of the van, holding the rifle, but he did not respond when ordered to put the weapon down, Kennedy said. Finally, McAfee pointed the rifle toward the officers and fired a shot, Kennedy said. Four officers—two from the Cobb police department and two Marietta officers— shot back at least 23 times from the shell casings found at the scene, he said. In addition to the rifle, a shotgun was found in McAfee's van, Kennedy said.
Because of the circumstances of Mr. McAfee's death, the defendant obtained copies of the reports of the Cobb County Medical Examiner's Office, the Marietta Police Department, and the Cobb County Department of Public Safety. The Cobb County Medical Examiner's report provided the following description:
Preliminary information was the victim had entered the parking lot of the BP gas station at Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill Road and demanded alcoholic beverages from the attendant. The attendant of the gas station contacted 911 and police officers responded to the location. Upon the police officers arrival at the BP gas station the victim was pursued leaving the gas station south on Cobb Parkway and was eventually cornered and in the parking lot for the Crab House restaurant.
The victim displayed a rifle from the vehicle and discharged the rifle in the direction of the police officers. The police officers returned fire striking the victim multiple times.
The Marietta Police Department report included the following descriptions of the incident provided by several participating police officers:
I arrived in the lot and observed Officers Langley and Honea running from there [sic] vehicles away from a blue van. I observed the suspect sitting in the driver seat armed with what looked like a shotgun.
I gave the suspect continuous [sic] voice commands to drop the gun. At this time several other units had arrived on the scene. I observed the subject climb from the front seat to the back seat. The suspect then exited the vehicle on the passenger side and walked toward John Smith Chevrolet. I then left the cover of my vehicle and moved behind a vehicle parked just to the right of the suspect vehicle. At this time the suspect got back into the back seat on the passenger side. I again ordered him to put down the weapon. The suspect then pointed the gun out the door and fired a round into the air and started to bring the gun to level. At this time I discharged my duty weapon at the suspect[.] I could not advise how many rounds I fired.
...
As I approached the vehicle the suspect displayed a shotgun from inside the vehicle. I exited my vehicle and took a cover position. After several commands by other officers to drop the gun, the suspect fired at police. Officers returned fire, injuring the suspect.
...
I took cover behind a vehicle in the area of two Cobb County police officers. On [sic] of the officers had [a] shotgun and the other had a handgun. Both were pointed at a van in the parking lot [of] the Crab House. The van had the passenger side facing me with the side door open. In the van, I observed a white male with a rifle in his hands. The rifle had a scope on it.
The male in the van was pointing the ... rifle in all directions including towards several police officers. The male then put the rifle out the side door of the van, pointed it at about a 45 degree angle in the air towards Cobb Parkway. The male then discharged one round from the rifle. The male then started to lower the rifle. At that time, I observed the two Cobb County police offices return fire at the van. The male in the van fell back into the van into the seat behind the drivers seat.
...
In front of the van I could see numerous police vehicles and could hear an officer on the loud speaker of a patrol vehicle. The officer on the loud speaker was giving commands to the subject in the van to put his weapon down and come out of the van with his hands up. I then saw the subject in [the] van open his side sliding door point his shotgun up in the air and fire a shot into the air. At that point I heard numerous shots fired from police personnel and saw the shots from the police strike the van.
...
Officer Freer yelled for the suspect to put the weapon down several times but the suspect responded by shaking his head no.... The suspect again proceeded to exit the van and discharged the firearm at which time officers ... returned fire striking the suspect several times....
The report of the Cobb County Department of Public Safety concerning an internal investigation of the incident in part concluded:
David McAfee had demonstrated no desire to surrender to Police. Verbal instructions were repeatedly given for McAfee to put down his weapon. The Officers were clearly able to see that the weapon McAfee had in his hands was a coped rifle. All officers present demonstrated constraint up until the time that McAfee discharged his weapon. Officers were utilizing cover behind automobiles although there [sic] cover was minimal considering the penetrating power of the rifle that McAfee possessed.
The weapons that McAfee had in his vehicle were as follows:
1) Marlin 30-30 rifle with scope
2) Stevens 12 gauge shotgun
3) Marlin .22 rifle
The Cobb County Department of Public Safety concluded that "David McAfee manifested intent to do bodily harm to other[s]" and, by implication, not himself.
By letter, dated October 15, 1998, the defendant advised the plaintiffs of the denial of their claim for accidental death benefits. The letter stated in pertinent part:
In consideration of your claim for accidental death benefits under this policy, we have made inquiries into the circumstances of your husband's death. Our inquiries disclosed that Mr. McAfee's conduct by firing at the police resulted in his death. To qualify for...
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...to death during autoerotic asphyxiation, and holding that such a death was an "accident"); McAfee v. Transamerica Occidental Life Ins. Co., 106 F.Supp.2d 1331, 1341 (N.D.Ga.2000) (where the decedent was shot by police while brandishing a rifle, his death was not an "accident" under Wickman,......