Rosa v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company

• Decision Date: 25 June 1965
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 10163.
• Citation: 243 F. Supp. 407
• Parties: Julia ROSA, Plaintiff, v. LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut

243 F. Supp. 407

Julia ROSA, Plaintiff, v. LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.

Civ. No. 10163.

United States District Court D. Connecticut.

June 25, 1965.

Philip R. Shiff, New Haven, Conn., for plaintiff.

Gregory C. Willis, Bridgeport, Conn., for defendant.

ZAMPANO, District Judge.

The issue presented in this diversity action, tried to the Court without a jury, is whether the provisions of a homeowner's insurance policy issued by the defendant cover a judgment rendered by the Court, Blumenfeld, J., in a prior action between the plaintiff and the defendant's insured under the policy.

On November 11, 1960, sixteen-year-old Richard Delage was driving his father's station wagon along a public highway in Stamford, Connecticut, when he observed the plaintiff walking along the sidewalk. After parking the vehicle, Richard accosted the plaintiff with a gun in his hand and ordered her into the station wagon. When the plaintiff struggled and screamed out, Richard struck her, and when she continued to scream, he shot her in the head and on the left side of her body. At first he drove away from the scene, but a short time later he returned and was arrested by members of the local police department.

After being taken to the Stamford Hospital where plaintiff identified him as her assailant, Richard was interrogated at police headquarters and held on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. However, after a psychiatric examination, he was committed to a state mental institution and the charge against him was nolled.

Plaintiff, having recovered from her wounds, instituted an action in this Court against Richard and, upon entry of default, she was awarded damages in the amount of $22,500.00. She now seeks to recover this judgment from the defendant.

At the time of the incident in question there was in effect a policy of general liability insurance issued by the defendant to George Delage, Richard's father. The policy provided coverage "to pay on behalf of the Insured all sums which the Insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury * * * sustained by any person." The defendant concedes Richard, an unemancipated minor living with his parents, was an additional insured under the policy. However, it refuses payment under the standard exclusion portion of the policy which limits coverage if the injury was "caused intentionally by * * * the Insured."

Relying on the evidence that Richard borrowed the gun and purchased ammunition sometime prior to the incident, that he took the pistol with him and loaded it when he left his home that evening, that he left home "to look for a girl" so that he could have sexual relations with her, and that he had been thinking about having intercourse with a girl for "a few months", the defendant contends Richard's actions constitute a willful or malicious assault and battery and, therefore, were committed intentionally. The plaintiff, on the other hand, claims Richard was suffering from a mental illness which rendered him incapable of committing an "intentional" act.

Both parties introduced expert testimony. Dr. Bratt examined Richard on the night in question and testified, on direct examination, that in his opinion the boy's actions "must have been done in a perfect conscious condition" and that "he must have been well aware of what he was doing." However, on cross-examination, Dr. Bratt admitted Richard was suffering from a "psychopathic-sociopathic condition", that the diagnosis of "acute schizophrenia", subsequently made by other doctors, was consistent...