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Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Insurance Company6/7/2002
Argued and submitted March 1, 2001.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part. The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Riggs, J., specially concurred and filed an opinion.
In this insurance case, we are asked to determine whether Oregon Mutual Insurance Company (defendant) had a duty to defend its insured, Little John's Pizza (Little John's), in a tort action by a former Little John's employee, Winters. After that action was settled, Little John's and its owner, John Minnis (Minnis), brought this action against defendant. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of defendant. The Court of Appeals reversed that judgment in part, holding that defendant had a duty to defend Little John's because Winters's complaint could have imposed vicarious liability on Little John's for conduct of its manager, Tuck Minnis (Tuck), that was covered under the policy. Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Ins. Co., 162 Or App 198, 212, 986 P2d 77 (1999).
We allowed defendant's petition for review and now conclude that, as explained below, the underlying complaint could not have imposed vicarious liability on Little John's for any conduct by its manager that was covered by the policy. Accordingly, defendant did not have a duty to defend Little John's. We affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the Court of Appeals, and we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.
The material facts are not in dispute. John Minnis owned and operated Little John's, a pizza parlor that was managed by his brother, Tuck. Little John's hired Winters, then seventeen years old, to work in the pizza parlor. After several months, Winters quit her job and brought an action against Minnis, Tuck, and Little John's, alleging that she was forced to quit her job because of sexual harassment.
In her complaint, Winters included claims of sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. Because the allegations in Winters's sexual harassment, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress claims are central to our discussion of whether defendant had a duty to defend Little John's, we set them out in detail here.
Winters's first claim for relief was for sexual harassment. In that claim, Winters alleged that:
"At all material times, * * * Tuck Minnis was a management level employee of * * * Little John's * * *. * * * Tuck Minnis was [Winters's] direct supervisor and acted at all material times in the scope of his employment.
"At all material times, * * * John Minnis was the owner of * * * Little John's * * *. * * * John Minnis was [Winters's] direct supervisor and acted at all material times in the scope of his employment.
"[Winters] was employed by * * * Little John's * * * from approximately April 1, 1995[,] until July 5, 1995[,] when she was forced to quit her job .
"During and throughout such employment as stated above, [Winters's] supervisor, * * * Tuck Minnis, a man approximately twenty years older than [Winters], encouraged and engaged in a continuous pattern and practice of subjecting [Winters] to sexually explicit conduct and comments, creating a sexually hostile work environment, and conditioning [Winters's] continued employment on acquiescence to such an environment. * * * Tuck Minnis' sexually explicit comments included, but were not limited to the following:
"(a) Unwelcome statements and graphic descriptions of sex habits, activities, body parts[,] and abilities;
"(b) Repeated offensive sexual comments about the anatomy of females;
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Oregon Personal Injury Attorneys
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