Willis v. Allstate Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1990
• Docket Number: No. 1559,1559
• Citation: 88 Md.App. 21,591 A.2d 896
• Parties: Payge R. WILLIS v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 21

88 Md.App. 21

591 A.2d 896

Payge R. WILLIS v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. 1559, Sept. Term, 1990.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

July 1, 1991.

Daniel P. Barrera (Bruce B. McHale and Chamowitz & Chamowitz, P.C., on the brief), Alexandria, Va., for appellant.

Thomas Patrick Ryan (McCarthy, Wilson & Ethridge, on the brief), Rockville, for appellee.

Argued before GARRITY, ALPERT and CATHELL, JJ.

ALPERT, Judge.

This case involves an appeal from a declaratory judgment action brought in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County by appellee, Allstate Insurance Company ("Allstate"), to determine whether Allstate owed liability and medical payments coverage under a homeowner's liability policy issued to the insureds, Donald and Racquel Bywater ("the Bywaters"). Allstate brought the action after appellant, Payge Willis ("Willis"), the Bywaters's daughter and the personal representative of the estate of Amanda Willis ("Amanda"), filed a wrongful death and survival suit ¹ against the Bywaters subsequent to the drowning of Amanda Willis, Payge Willis's daughter and the Bywaters's granddaughter, in the Bywaters's pool. Payge Willis and her children had been living with the Bywaters at the time.

After the Circuit Court for Prince George's County (the Honorable G.R. Hovey Johnson, presiding) held a hearing on the motion for summary judgment filed by Allstate, and the cross motions for summary judgment filed by Willis and the Bywaters, the court granted summary judgment in favor of Allstate. The court held that Amanda Willis had been a "resident relative" of the Bywaters on the date of her death, thus precluding family liability or guest medical payments coverage under the Bywaters's insurance policy for any claims arising from the child's death. Willis then noted this appeal, in which we are asked to consider:

I. As this is a case of first impression, what standards should this court apply in determining the issue of residency in the context of a homeowner's liability policy?

II. Whether the term "resident" as set forth in the homeowner's insurance policy at issue, and applied to the factual circumstances of this case, is ambiguous, thereby mandating a narrow construction of the exclusionary clause exempting "resident relatives" from coverage under the Bywaters's homeowner's insurance policy.

III. Whether the trial court committed reversible error in resolving the factual issue of residency by summary judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The accidental death of three-year-old Amanda Willis occurred on June 19, 1986, when Amanda drowned in her grandparents' (the Bywaters) pool. Payge Willis alleged in her wrongful death and survival suit complaint that Amanda had gained access to the pool through a broken/open gate, whereupon she had slipped and/or fallen into the pool, and drowned.

At the time of Amanda's death, Willis was living with Amanda and her two other children, Carrie and Paul III, at her parents' home at 4315 40th Street, in Brentwood, Maryland. Previously, Willis, her three children, and her husband, Paul Willis, Jr., had been living in Cleveland, Ohio, for a period of approximately five years. In early 1986 certain calamitous developments prompted her to relocate to the Washington metropolitan area, so that she could be closer to her family.

In mid-April of 1986, Willis moved from Cleveland to stay with her parents at their Brentwood, Maryland home. According to Willis, it was clear to her and her parents that she and her children would be temporary guests at the Bywaters's home, until she could find a job and secure a separate residence for her and her children. She brought all of her personal belongings with her, but stored most of her furniture in a U-Haul facility in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Sometime in May of 1986, Willis began a part-time job as a housekeeper for the Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., earning $182.40 every two weeks. Due to her limited salary, Willis had been unable to find an affordable apartment prior to her daughter's death. She had been interested in one apartment, on Bunkerhill Road in Brentwood, which was managed by friends of her parents, but had not made any arrangements in regard to its rental.

While living with the Bywaters, Willis contributed fifty dollars every two weeks for boarding expenses; all other expenses were paid by her parents. Racquel Bywater cooked all the meals and took care of Willis's children when Willis was at work. Willis's parents knew that she was looking for a place to live, but realized that finding one would be difficult because she was only working part-time. Accordingly, they placed no time constraints on her stay with them.

At the time of Amanda's drowning, the Bywaters were insured by Allstate under a homeowner's liability policy that provided family liability and guest medical protection. The family liability provision of the policy specifically excluded "bodily injury to an insured person"; ² the guest medical protection provision specifically excluded "bodily injury to any insured person or regular resident of the insured premises."

On June 1, 1989, Payge Willis filed a wrongful death and survival suit against her parents. The Bywaters then filed a claim against Allstate, seeking defense and indemnification for the claims arising from the suit. In response, Allstate filed a Complaint for Declaratory Relief seeking a determination that no coverage was afforded under the policy for the liability and medical payments benefits claims that had been made, because Amanda Willis was a "resident relative." From an adverse ruling in favor of Allstate, Willis noted this appeal.

THE LAW

Propriety of the Grant of Summary Judgment

After a hearing was held on the parties' motions for summary judgment, Allstate's motion was granted, precluding liability for the drowning, because the court determined that Amanda Willis had been a "resident relative" of the Bywaters's household. Appellant insists that the grant of summary judgment was inappropriate because material issues of fact existed that warranted a trial on the merits.

The purpose of the summary judgment proceeding is "to determine whether there exists a factual controversy requiring a trial." Foy v. Prudential Ins. Co., 316 Md. 418, 422, 559 A.2d 371 (1989). The proponent of the motion bears the burden of demonstrating that there is no genuine dispute as to the material facts. See Lowman v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 68 Md.App. 64, 69, 509 A.2d 1239 (1986). Judgment is to be entered in the moving party's favor if the party convinces the court "that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." King v. Bankerd, 303 Md. 98, 111, 492 A.2d 608 (1985). Under Maryland Rule 2-501, when an appellate court reviews the propriety of a trial court's grant of a summary judgment motion, it "must first determine whether there is a genuine dispute as to any material fact, and if not, whether the party requesting the summary judgment to be entered in its favor is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Miller v. Nissen Corp., 83 Md.App. 448, 458, 575 A.2d 758 (1990), cert. granted, 321 Md. 225, 582 A.2d 531 (1991). All inferences are resolved against the motion's proponent, and if there is a choice between inferences, then summary judgment is improper. See King, 303 Md. at 111, 492 A.2d 608. With these concepts in mind, we turn to the case sub judice.

Initially on appeal, appellant contended that material issues of fact existed that precluded summary judgment. This contention is unsubstantiated. We first note that appellant (as well as the Bywaters) acknowledged in her cross-motion for summary judgment that there was "no genuine dispute as to any material fact." Further, at the motions hearing, she reiterated that there were "no material facts in dispute." At oral argument, appellant's counsel agreed that there was no factual dispute and that the issue could be decided as a matter of law. Our review of the record reflects no dispute as to any of the facts material to a determination of Amanda Willis's residency at the time of her drowning. Indeed, the activities of the Willises during the period preceding the drowning, on which Allstate relies in order to show that Amanda Willis was a resident of the Bywaters's household, are chronicled in Payge Willis's own affidavit and deposition, as well as that of her parents. Appellant even acknowledges in her brief that "all of the facts to support [Allstate's] motion came from Payge Willis or the Bywaters."

Determination of "Resident Relative" Status

Having determined that there was no genuine dispute as to material fact, we shall examine whether the trial court correctly ruled, as a matter of law, that Amanda Willis was a "resident relative." We do so in accord with the principle that "[w]hen the facts are essentially undisputed, whether these facts fit within the policy definition is a question of law that may be decided on appellate review." Trezza v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 519 So.2d 649, 650 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1988).

It is widely held that the question of residence presents a mixed question of law and fact. See, e.g., Aetna Life and Casualty Co. v. Carrera, 577 A.2d 980, 985 (R.I.1990); Trezza, 519 So.2d at 650; State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Gazaway, 152 Ga.App. 716, 263 S.E.2d 693, 695 (1980); Hamilton v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 364 So.2d 215, 218 (La.App.1979). But,

[o]nce all the facts are marshaled, and it is made to appear that the marshaled facts are without dispute, then the ultimate conclusion as to residency becomes a question of law, i.e., whether such facts disclose residency of a particular place as a matter of law and within the meaning of the policy of insurance in question.

Hamilton, 364 So.2d at 218.

The policy in this case excluded injury to a "resident of [the insured's] household." These words, or words of similar...