Miami Beach Entertainment, Inc. v. First Oak Brook Corp. Syndicate
| Decision Date | 21 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-3482,95-3482 |
| Citation | 682 So.2d 161 |
| Parties | 21 Fla. L. Weekly D1907 MIAMI BEACH ENTERTAINMENT, INC., d/b/a Club One, and Telly Lockette, Appellants, v. FIRST OAK BROOK CORPORATION SYNDICATE, Appellee. Third District |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Maland & Ross, Robert Maland, Lauri Ross, and Dorothy F. Easley; Terminello & Terminello, Miami, for appellant Telly Lockette.
Santos & Dutton, P.A., and Daniel J. Lynott, Tampa, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and JORGENSON and GODERICH, JJ.
A night club and its injured patron appeal from an order of final summary judgment determining no coverage and no duty to defend under the club's insurance policy. We affirm.
Telly Lockette was a customer in Club One, a bar that was licensed for a maximum occupancy of 500 persons. On the Sunday night that he was there, approximately 1,500 people--three times the maximum allowed by law--were in the club. A fight broke out fifteen to twenty feet from Lockette's table. Lockette did not know any of the ten or fifteen people involved in the brawl, and he himself was not involved. He was seated in the middle of the room on the second floor when people involved in the fight started throwing glass bottles and ashtrays. Lockette had his back turned away from the fight when he was hit in the head with a champagne bottle that had been thrown by one of the unknown brawlers. He sustained serious head injuries which forced him to abandon his college education and a promising future in football.
Lockette sued Club One for negligence, alleging that his injuries resulted from the club's failure to prevent overcrowding; its failure to exercise adequate crowd control; its failure to provide adequate security; and its failure to maintain the premises in a safe manner.
The insurer filed an action for declaratory relief, invoking a policy clause that excluded coverage for assault, battery, or "harmful or offensive contact between two or more persons." The policy excluded coverage for such acts
[r]egardless of degree of culpability or intent and without regard to ... the alleged failure of the insured or his officers, employees, agents or servants to attempt to prevent, bar, or halt any such conduct. 1
The insurer moved for summary judgment based on the policy's assault and battery exclusion, relying on the plain language of the exclusion for harmful or offensive conduct. Lockette moved for summary judgment asserting that coverage lay based upon the liquor liability provision and that the incident that gave rise to the injuries did not fall within the assault and battery exclusion. The trial court granted the insurer's motion for summary judgment. We hold that under the specific terms of the...
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