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Cole v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company6/14/2000
an "accident."
Both parties assert that under Maryland law, "accident" is defined for present purposes as "a happening; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an event which proceeds from an unknown cause, or is an unusual effect from a known cause, and therefore not expected." Harleysville Mut. Cas. Co. v. Harris & Brooks, Inc. 248 Md. 148, 151, 235 A.2d 556, 557 (1967)(citations omitted). This definition provides incomplete guidance in the present case, however, because it fails to establish through whose eyes one should analyze whether Ms. Cole's death was the result of an "accident."
The distinction is critical. The undisputed facts of this case are that Mr. Cave carried a gun to Ms. Cole's van, aimed it toward her, and fired it. Standing in Mr. Cave's shoes, Ms. Cole's death hardly can be called an accident. It seems obvious that was the lower courts' analytical vantage point and remains State Farm's in this Court. Switching positions, however, if one takes Ms. Cole's perspective, her death may be said to have been the result of an accident if her murder occurred without her foresight or expectation. See id. No alternative vantage points have been suggested by the parties, nor do we deem there to be any. Therefore, our real task in this case is to determine whether the fatal incident should be analyzed from the perspective of Mr. Cave, the murderer, or Ms. Cole, the insured victim.
Respondent offers three Maryland cases to support its position that we should define the term "accident" from the actor's, Mr. Cave's, perspective. The first is Harleysville Mut. Cas. Co. v. Harris & Brooks, Inc., 248 Md. 148, 235 A.2d 556 (1967). Harris & Brooks, Inc. was an excavation contractor. After the employees of the company completed clearing fifteen acres of land, they stacked the cleared trees in piles. The employees then added gasoline and rubber tires to the piles and set them on fire. The fire burned for two days. Neighboring property owners brought suit against the company for the smoke damage caused to their homes by the fire. The trial court entered judgment in favor of the homeowners and awarded approximately $3,000 in damages. Harris & Brooks, Inc. paid the homeowners and then brought a suit against its general liability insurer for reimbursement.
The policy that was the subject of the suit between Harris & Brooks, Inc. and its insurer required the insurer to pay all sums which Harris & Brooks, Inc. became legally obligated to pay as damages "caused by accident." See Harleysville Mut. Cas. Co., 248 Md. at 150, 235 A.2d at 557. Hence, the implicit coverage insured against third party claims. The insurance company claimed that the damages caused to the homeowners were not "caused by accident."
We agreed with the insurance company's argument. We observed that the fact that damages were caused by an intentional act did not preclude us from finding that they were caused by "accident" if something unforseen produces an unexpected result. See id. at 151, 235 A.2d at 558. Under the facts of the case, however, we concluded that when the contractor's employees intentionally stacked trees, set them afire with gasoline, and allowed the fire to burn for two days, the contractor should have foreseen the potential for the resultant damage. Accordingly, the homeowners' damages were not accidental.
Respondent next directs our attention to Glens Falls Ins. Co. v. American Oil Co., 254 Md. 120, 254 A.2d 658 (1969). The issue in Glens Falls Ins. Co. was whether the intentional crash of a vehicle into a gasoline station constituted an "accident" under the terms of the driver's automobile liability policy. In an
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