The Supreme Court of Idaho found that the intentional shooting by a care-taker in the insureds' campground was not covered under the CGL policy. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. of Idaho v. Cook, 2018 Idaho LEXIS 71 (Idaho March 30, 2018).
The insureds allowed people to use a lake and campground on their property without charging a fee. Michael Chisholm lived on the property in a cabin in exchange for caring for the property. Chisholm had a disagreement with Joseph Stanczak and ended up shooting Stanczak with a handgun. Chisholm was charged with aggravated assault and pled guilty without admitting guilt to all the elements of his crimes. He was sentenced to prison.
The insureds had a policy with Farm Bureau. Stanczak sued Chisholm, the insureds and Farm Bureau. Farm Bureau denied coverage and filed a complaint for a declaratory judgment. Farm Bureau then moved for summary judgment which was granted.
On appeal, the insureds argued that the shooting - while intentional from Chisholm's point of view - was an accident from theirs, and thus was a covered "occurrence." Farm Bureau asserted that the injuries flowed directly from the intentional shooting, and thus were not an "occurrence."
Idaho followed the "nature of the event" test, whereby negligence claims against in insured that directly arose out of the intentional act of a third party were not covered because the underlying causative act was not covered. While the insureds argued that the incident fell precisely in line with the definition of an accident from their perspective - the shooting was an unexpected event resulting from their purported negligence - Idaho law used a contrary interpretation. A reasonable person would view Stanczak's injuries as resulting from an assault. An intentional shooting caused the injuries, and thus the shooting was not an "occurrence" under Idaho law.
Therefore, the court affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Farm Bureau.
