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[T] Amrhein v. Acuity2/18/2004
his case, there is no similar basis for uncertainty as to Raymond's actions. As noted, there is no evidence or reasonable inference of friendship between Raymond and Schaal-indeed the record indicates overt animosity between the two. Nor is there any dispute that Raymond intentionally made false statements to Hoeft regarding Schaal's intention to fight Hoeft.
. Unlike the defendant in Gouger, Raymond's actions in this case allow for only one reasonable inference-that Raymond intended Schaal to suffer injury as a consequence of his intentional actions. Acuity correctly argues, pursuant to the supreme court's decision in Raby, that the intent to inflict injury may be inferred as a matter of law from the nature of the insured's intentional acts. See Raby, 153 Wis. 2d at 105. In holding that the defendant's actions in Raby were intentional as a matter of law, the court looked to previous discussions by the court regarding the intent which must be proven to invoke a policy exclusion for intentional acts.
`Intent, however, is broader than a desire to bring about physical results. It must extend not only to those consequences which are desired, but also to those which the actor believes are substantially certain to follow from what he does.... The man who fires a bullet into a dense crowd may fervently pray that he will hit no one, but since he must believe and know that he cannot avoid doing so, he intends it. The practical application of this principle has meant that where a reasonable man in the defendant's position would believe that a particular result was substantially certain to follow, he will be dealt with by the jury, or even by the court, as though he had intended it....'
Id. at 111 (citing Pachucki, 89 Wis. 2d at 711) (first emphasis added). We now consider the facts of this case in light of this law.
. Here, the undisputed evidence at summary judgment is that Raymond intentionally made false statements to Hoeft to incite him to fight Schaal and offered to pay Hoeft if he harmed Schaal. Not only do we conclude as a matter of law that Raymond intended injury to Schaal insofar as his statements to Hoeft unequivocally indicate that injury to Schaal was Raymond's desired outcome, we also conclude that a reasonable person in Raymond's position would believe that some kind of injury to Schaal was substantially certain to result from his comments to Hoeft.
. Schaal appears to concede this point. In support of his negligence claim in his amended complaint, Schaal alleges that Raymond "knew or should have known that Hoeft would react to it in a manner that was likely to cause injury to Schaal." Nonetheless, when it comes to a determination as to whether Raymond's actions were intentional, Schaal contends that viewing the record most favorable to Schaal, "it cannot be stated that [Raymond] was substantially certain that Schaal would sustain an injury intentionally inflicted upon him by Hoeft as a result of [Raymond's] statements."
. Acuity argues that Schaal's apparently conflicting positions result from an attempt to create coverage for an intentional action by pleading it as negligence, a practice that was rejected in Berg v. Fall, 138 Wis. 2d 115, 122 n.2, 405 N.W.2d 701 (Ct. App. 1987). We agree. We reject Schaal's attempt to recharacterize Raymond's intentional acts as negligence. We conclude that the summary judgment record allows for but one reasonable inference: Raymond's actions were intentional as a matter of law. Therefore, Acuity did not provide coverage pursuant to the Intentional Acts Exclusion provision of the Acuity policy, which bars coverage for bodily injury that is "expected or intended by the insured."
. Sc
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