 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Springdale Donuts Inc. v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Co.3/2/1999
the underlying complaints are covered by the policy because (1) the allegations constitute claims for slander, and (2) they also constitute claims for invasion of privacy. We disagree with both of those arguments.
The applicable provision of the plaintiff's commercial general liability policy, which is set forth at part (1) (a) of coverage B, provides that the insurer "will pay those sums that the [plaintiff] becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of `personal injury ' . . . to which this insurance applies. [The insurer] will have the right and duty to defend any `suit' seeking those damages. . . ." Section V (10) of the policy provides in relevant part that "` ersonal injury' means injury . . . arising out of . . . ral . . . publication of material that slanders . . . a person . . . ral . . . publication of material that violates a person's right of privacy." (Emphasis added.) Thus, in order for the allegations of the underlying complaints to fall within the policy coverage for personal injury claims, the complaints must allege personal injury arising out of the oral "publication" of material that slandered the claimants or that violated their right of privacy.
The plaintiff maintains that the claimants' allegations that Mohamed made frequent lewd and lascivious remarks to them constitute allegations of oral publication of such material. The term "publication," however, generally refers to the communication of words to a third person. See Torosyan v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 234 Conn. 1, 27-28, 662 A.2d 89 (1995); Yavis v. Sullivan, 137 Conn. 253, 261-62, 76 A.2d 99 (1950). Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines "publication" as the "communication (as of news or information) to the public." (Emphasis added.) Publication is defined in Black's Law Dictionary (6th Ed. 1990) as the "communicat defamatory words orally . . . to some third person capable of understanding their defamatory import . . . ." (Emphasis added.) Common sense dictates that a lay person would understand the term "publication" to mean the communication of words to a third person. Because the underlying complaints did not allege "publication" of material to a third party, but instead were based entirely on comments directly made only to the claimants, we conclude that the complaints do not set forth allegations of a personal injury to which the plaintiff's commercial general liability policy applies. The policy, therefore, does not provide coverage for the underlying complaints, and, consequently, the defendants had no duty pursuant to the commercial general liability policy to defend the plaintiff in the underlying actions.
III
The plaintiff's final contention is that, even if the underlying claims are not within the purview of its workers' compensation and commercial general liability policies, the plaintiff's umbrella policy nevertheless obligated the defendants to defend the plaintiff against the underlying claims. The defendants argue, however, that policy exclusions contained in the umbrella policy explicitly preclude coverage for the underlying claims. We agree with the defendants.
The applicable provisions of the umbrella policy provide coverage for personal injury and bodily injury. The policy defines " ersonal injury," in relevant part, as an injury other than bodily injury arising out of " iscrimination because of . . . sex . . . ." "Bodily injury" is defined as "bodily injury, shock, fright, mental injury, disability, mental anguish, humiliation, sickness or disease sustained by a person, including death resulting from any of these at any time." Exclusion 3 (h) of the umbrella policy provides, however, that the policy does
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Connecticut Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|