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St. Paul Property and Liability Insurance Co. v. Eymann8/23/1990
ly enraged and exercised poor judgment in striking Mr. Cusumano." In our opinion, none of this evidence supports the proposition that Eymann's condition left him unable to act rationally. The evidence establishes at most that Eymann's judgment, and consequently his ability to control his actions, was to some extent impaired. In that condition he was still able to act deliberately so as to cause injury, and according to his own testimony, did so.
Congregation of Rodef Sholom of Marin v. American Motorists Ins. Co., 91 Cal.App.3d 690, 154 Cal.Rptr. 348 (1979), on which Eymann relies, is of no help to him. In that case the 16-year-old insured set fire to a wastebasket in a classroom and caused extensive property damage. On appeal from judgment for the insurer, the court reversed and remanded for a new trial because the trial court erroneously instructed the jury that it could find coverage only if the insured had not understood the nature and quality of his act or could not distinguish between right and wrong.
Eymann's discussion of Congregation of Rodef Sholom implies that the California appellate court concluded that a jury determination of the insured's mental capacity was appropriate based principally on evidence that the insured was suffering from an "adolescent adjustment reaction" that caused him a severe feeling of rejection and produced in him an "overwhelming"
desire to set the fire. In fact, there was also evidence in that case that the insured had a schizoid personality, suffered delusions and auditory hallucinations, and was "impelled by an impulse which he did not have the power to resist." 91 Cal.App.3d at 693, 154 Cal.Rptr. at 350 (emphasis added). No comparable evidence concerning Eymann was presented in this case.
Eymann, however, emphasizes the following testimony of Glassman:
Did he have an intention of hurting someone? No. It turned out to be a spontaneous event that happened after he was denied entry, was told to go away, and was rejected again by his wife. And there was still no intent at that time, he just reacted.
This testimony was insufficient to take the case to the jury. Glassman also acknowledged that Eymann was in sufficient control of his intellect and his reason to form an intention to injure someone. Moreover, the context immediately preceding this testimony reveals that Glassman was not focusing on Eymann's mental functioning at the moment he struck Cusumano, but rather on the immaterial question of whether Eymann formed an intention to hurt his wife or her boyfriend before even arriving at his wife's apartment. Glassman testified:
His condition, as I understood it from my evaluation and from my assessment due to his emotional state at the time that he had absolutely no intent of trying to find out who someone -- who a person may have been who might have stolen his wife away from him or was responsible or that he wanted to injure his wife in any fashion. He just wanted to go back to her apartment and attempt to reconcile with her. He had no intentions, from the best that I was able to assess, of wanting to hurt someone or to injure someone. He just wanted his wife back.
Finally, it is clear from Eymann's own testimony that he "reacted" intentionally. Eymann testified:
Q. ou hit him on the left side of the head with your right hand; right?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And when he stepped towards you and you hit him, you intended to hit him, didn't you?
A. I intended to hit him.
There was no evidence from which a reasonable jury could have concluded that Eymann's mental stat
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