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Travelers Indemnity Co. v. PCR Incorporated12/9/2004
e methods for satisfying the intentional-tort exception. An injured employee seeking to avoid the exclusive-remedy provision of the Workers' Compensation Law and sue his employer in tort could do so, of course, by demonstrating that his employer "exhibited a deliberate intent to injure" him. Turner, 754 So. 2d at 687 (quoting Fisher, 498 So. 2d at 883) (alteration omitted). Alternatively, an injured employee could satisfy the intentional-tort exception by demonstrating that his employer "engaged in conduct which substantially certain to result in injury or death." Id. at 687 (quoting Fisher, 498 So. 2d at 883) (alteration omitted).
In Turner, however, we went one step further. We held that the latter method of satisfying the intentional-tort exception, the substantial-certainty method, calls for an objective inquiry: the relevant question is not whether the employer actually knew that its conduct was substantially certain to result in injury or death but, rather, whether the employer should have known that its conduct was substantially certain to result in injury or death. 754 So. 2d at 688. Accordingly, we held that under the substantial-certainty method of satisfying the intentional-tort exception, "the employer's actual intent is not controlling." Id. Rather, this method requires a court to look to the totality of the circumstances "to determine whether a reasonable person would understand that the employer's conduct was substantially certain to result in injury or death to the employee." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Applying this standard, we held that PCR was not entitled to summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether its conduct had been objectively substantially certain to cause injury or death. Id. at 691.
B. The Employer's Liability Insurance Policy
At the time of the explosion, PCR was insured by Travelers Indemnity Company (Travelers) under a "Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Policy." As its name suggests, this was a dual-coverage policy. Part One, entitled "Workers Compensation Insurance," provided that Travelers would "pay promptly when due the benefits required of by the workers compensation law." Part Two, entitled "Employers Liability Insurance," provided that Travelers would "pay all sums legally must pay as damages because of bodily injury to [PCR's] employees, provided the bodily injury is covered by this Employers Liability Insurance." Part Two's coverage applied only to claims of "bodily injury by accident . . . aris out of and in the course of the injured employee's employment by ." Additionally, Part Two enumerated several exclusions from coverage, one of which was that " his insurance does not cover . . . bodily injury intentionally caused or aggravated by ."
After our decision in Turner, Travelers brought a declaratory-judgment action in the federal district court to determine whether it was obligated under Part Two of the Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Policy to defend or indemnify PCR against the claims brought by PCR's injured employees in the underlying tort suits. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of PCR, holding that the claims in the underlying tort suits were covered by the policy because the injury-intentionally-caused exclusion applied only if the insured specifically intended to cause injury. See Travelers Indem. Co., 326 F.3d at 1192. On appeal, the federal court of appeals was unsure how Florida law would interpret the policy. The court recognized that two of Florida's district courts of appeal had interpreted identical exclusionary clauses to apply only when the insured acted with the specific intent to cause injury. Id. at 1193-94 (ci
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