Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Pasiak
| Decision Date | 19 December 2017 |
| Docket Number | SC 19618 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY et al. v. Jeffrey S. PASIAK et al. |
David J. Robertson, with whom were Christopher H. Blau, and, on the brief, Madonna A. Sacco, for the appellants (named defendant et al.).
Robert D. Laurie, with whom, on the brief, were Heather L. McCoy and Elizabeth F. Ahlstrand, for the appellees (plaintiffs).
Rogers, C.J., and Palmer, Eveleigh, McDonald, Espinosa, Robinson and D'Auria, Js.*
This declaratory judgment action concerns whether an insurer is obligated to indemnify a business owner under a personal insurance policy for liability arising from his false imprisonment of his company's employee at her workplace and the evidentiary basis on which such a determination is to be made. In this certified appeal, the defendant Jeffrey S. Pasiak1 challenges the Appellate Court's determination that such liability fell under the business pursuits exclusion to coverage under his personal umbrella policy. The plaintiffs, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company, contend that coverage not only is barred under the business pursuits exclusion, but also that (1) coverage is barred under policy exclusions for workers' compensation obligations and for mental abuse, (2) construing the policy to provide indemnification for common-law punitive damages arising from intentional wrongdoing violates public policy, and (3) the trial court improperly limited the scope of discovery and the declaratory judgment trial, depriving the plaintiffs of a trial de novo on coverage issues that they could not litigate in the underlying tort action.
We hold that the case must be remanded to the trial court for further proceedings, limited to the issue of whether the business pursuits exclusion applies. We conclude that neither the Appellate Court nor the trial court employed the correct standard for determining whether the defendant's tortious conduct was an occurrence "arising out of" the business pursuits of the insured and that further factual findings would be necessary to determine whether this exception applies under the correct standard. We further conclude that the plaintiffs cannot prevail on their alternative grounds regarding the other exclusions and public policy as a matter of law. Finally, we conclude that the plaintiffs are not limited to the evidentiary record in the underlying tort action to establish that the business pursuits exclusion barred coverage. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Appellate Court with direction to remand the case to the trial court for a trial de novo on that issue.
The Appellate Court's opinion summarized the facts that the jury reasonably could have found in the underlying tort action; see Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co. v. Pasiak, 161 Conn. App. 86, 90–91, 127 A.3d 346 (2015) ; which we have supplemented with the limited additional facts found by the trial court in the declaratory judgment action, also gleaned from the evidence in the underlying action.2 At the time of the incident in question, the defendant operated a construction company, Pasiak Construction Services, LLC. The sole office for the company was a room located on the second floor of the defendant's home in Stamford; the company's construction equipment was stored at another site. Sara Socci was hired by the defendant to perform duties as an office worker for the construction company and worked at that office in the defendant's home. Her work hours were from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., four days a week.
During Socci's second week of employment, while she was alone at the office performing her duties, a masked intruder carrying a gun entered the office and demanded that she open the safe. Unaware that a safe existed in the home, Socci could not provide the intruder with the safe's combination. The intruder led Socci into a bedroom, where he tied her hands, gagged her, and blindfolded her. At one point, he pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her family if she did not give him the combination.
The defendant returned home during the incident and was attacked by the intruder. During an ensuing struggle, the defendant pulled off the intruder's mask, revealing him to be Richard Kotulsky, a lifelong friend of the defendant. The defendant began talking to Kotulsky and inquired about Socci. Kotulsky led the defendant to Socci, who was crying and hysterical. After the defendant made Kotulsky untie Socci, the three of them returned to the office, where a discussion continued between the defendant and Kotulsky about a woman.3 Socci asked to leave, but the defendant told her to stay and sit down. After further discussions with Kotulsky, the defendant allowed him to leave the house. Socci then told the defendant about the threats that Kotulsky had made to her and her family, but the defendant would not call the police. He told Socci to stay with him and refused to let her call the police or to discuss the incident further. She remained with the defendant for several hours, in fear that, if she left, she or her family might be harmed by Kotulsky. Only after he drove Socci to Greenwich to discuss the incident with a mutual friend, Denise Taranto, who advised them to call the police, did he allow Socci to leave.
The police were not contacted until later that day, after Socci and her husband, Kraig Socci, went to the defendant's home and learned that he had not yet contacted them. In the presence of the Soccis and the police, the defendant telephoned Kotulsky and told him that "the girl" had identified him to the police. Some days later, Kotulsky was arrested and eventually convicted of various criminal offenses in connection with this incident.4 The safe was never opened, and its contents were never divulged.
As a result of the incident, Socci developed post-traumatic stress disorder
, requiring extensive therapy, and was unable to return to work.
The record reveals the following additional undisputed facts and procedural history. Socci and Kraig Socci commenced a tort action against the defendant (Socci action), alleging (1) false imprisonment, (2) negligence, (3) negligent infliction of emotional distress, (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress, and (5) loss of consortium as to Kraig Socci.5 The first two claims related to the defendant's conduct in preventing Socci from leaving until she and the defendant returned from their meeting with Taranto. The third and fourth claims related to the entirety of the defendant's conduct leading up to his comments on the telephone to Kotulsky implicating Socci as the police informant. The complaint alleged that Socci had sustained permanent physical and emotional injuries and requested compensatory and punitive damages.
At the time of the relevant events, the defendant was covered by insurance policies issued by the plaintiffs, including a homeowners policy covering bodily injury and a personal umbrella policy covering bodily injury and personal injury. He did not have a separate commercial liability policy. The plaintiffs provided the defendant with an attorney to defend him in the Socci action, but notified him by letter that they were reserving their right to contest coverage.
In accordance with that reservation, the plaintiffs commenced the present action seeking a declaration that they had no duty to defend or indemnify the defendant in the Socci action. The plaintiffs then filed a motion for summary judgment, and the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment solely as to the duty to defend. The court concluded that the allegations of the complaint were sufficiently broad to obligate the plaintiffs to provide the defendant with a defense under both his homeowners policy and his personal umbrella policy. The court deemed it improper at that juncture to determine the plaintiffs' duty to indemnify the defendant. Accordingly, it granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment as to the duty to defend and denied the plaintiffs' motion seeking a declaratory judgment in their favor.
The Socci action proceeded to trial with the plaintiffs providing defense counsel to the defendant. At the conclusion of evidence, the parties agreed not to submit special interrogatories to the jury. The jury returned a general verdict in favor of the Soccis. It awarded Socci $628,200 in compensatory damages and $175,000 in punitive damages, and awarded Kraig Socci $32,500 in compensatory damages.
Following judgment in the Socci action, the plaintiffs filed a second motion for summary judgment in the declaratory judgment action regarding their duty to indemnify the defendant.6 In support of their motion, the plaintiffs argued that the defendant's policies did not provide coverage for his liability in the Socci action because those policies cover accidents, not intentional acts, and do not cover claims for emotional distress. The plaintiffs further contended that any coverage would be barred under policy exclusions for intentional acts, wilful violations of law, business pursuits, workers' compensation, and mental abuse. Finally, they contended that indemnification for the punitive damages would contravene public policy.
The trial court framed its decision on the motion in three parts: (1) the effect of the general verdict; (2) the duty to indemnify under the homeowners policy; and (3) the duty to indemnify under the umbrella policy. The court concluded that the general verdict rule7 precluded the plaintiffs' arguments premised on characterizing the defendant's conduct as exclusively intentional and, therefore, not a covered accidental occurrence. The court reasoned that the absence of jury interrogatories created an ambiguity as to the counts on which the verdict rested, and that because the plaintiffs had failed to afford themselves of the opportunity to seek such interrogatories, the verdict must be construed...
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