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Travelers Insurance Co. v. Laclair11/3/1995
OPINION BY JUSTICE A. CHRISTIAN COMPTON
These two appeals in a declaratory judgment proceeding present a question of motor vehicle insurance coverage. The dispositive issue is whether an intentional shooting by a person occupying an uninsured vehicle constitutes "use" of the vehicle for purposes of uninsured motorist coverage. We answer that query in the negative, and reverse.
The facts are virtually undisputed. On November 21, 1990, appellee Daryl F. LaClair, an Arlington County deputy sheriff, was operating his marked police vehicle on Lee Highway in Arlington County. An automobile ahead of LaClair, driven by one Marcus Arban, was being operated erratically in the left lane.
The officer assumed the driver was lost and was attempting to read a map.
As the officer pulled alongside the automobile in the right lane, it sped in front of him, pulled into the right lane, and stopped. The officer stopped his vehicle "four to five feet" behind Arban's automobile, followed standard procedures for making a traffic stop, such as activating emergency lights, stepped from his vehicle, and began to approach the automobile. He was wearing leisure clothes, not his police uniform.
When Arban began to open the door on the driver's side of the automobile, the officer ordered him to remain in the vehicle. The door continued to open, and the officer again told Arban to remain in his car.
Suddenly, the officer felt a blow to his left elbow. As he turned to examine the elbow, "a second shot struck" him; the bullet grazed his head cutting through his right eyelid and exited the eyebrow. The officer dove between the automobile and his police vehicle to avoid further shots. As the Arban car began to leave the scene, the officer, partially blinded, managed to fire several shots into its rear.
The next day, the Prince William County police attempted to serve a search warrant on Arban. He resisted entry into his home. During an exchange of gunfire, Arban and a police officer were killed.
Subsequently, LaClair filed a civil action in Arlington County against Arban's personal representative seeking recovery against the estate for his personal injuries. The automobile liability insurer on Arban's vehicle denied coverage.
Appellant Travelers Insurance Company issued a policy of automobile insurance on LaClair's personal automobile. Appellant Insurance Company of North America (I.N.A.) carried the liability insurance on the vehicles of the Arlington County Sheriff's Office.
Later, Travelers and I.N.A. sought, in the present declaratory judgment action, a ruling that they were not obligated to provide coverage to LaClair under the uninsured motorist provisions of their respective polices for the claims made in the personal injury action pending in Arlington County. As pertinent to the issue to be decided in this appeal, the respective policies obligated the insurer to pay LaClair all sums that he is legally entitled to recover as damages from the driver of an uninsured motor vehicle resulting
"from the ownership, maintenance or use of" the uninsured motor vehicle.
After an evidentiary hearing in the declaratory judgment proceeding, the trial court "determined as a matter of fact that the shooting of Captain LaClair was an intentional, not an accidental act, and that Arban was still partially inside his car at the time he fired the shots at Captain LaClair." In deciding the question whether "the circumstances of this case constitute 'use' of an au
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