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Allstate Insurance Co. v. Price11/3/2005
UNPUBLISHED
Before: Fort Hood, P.J., and White and O'Connell, JJ.
In this declaratory action, defendants appeal as of right the circuit court's ruling that plaintiff Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate) had no obligation as a matter of law to defend or indemnify defendant Allen in an underlying suit brought by defendant Bass. The circuit court concluded that the intentional/criminal acts exclusion of the homeowners' insurance policy at issue precluded coverage, and granted summary disposition in plaintiff's favor. We reverse.
I.
At around 10:00 p.m. on the evening of December 24, 2002, defendant Marcellus Allen went to visit his friends, Jonte Walker and Sylena Cowart, who were boyfriend and girlfriend, at 163 Michigan Avenue in Pontiac.
On the same evening, defendant Denisha Bass and three other women, including Lennisa Thomas, decided to get together. The women rode around Pontiac in a Ford Explorer SUV, and after making one stop, Lennisa Thomas said she wanted to drive by her ex-boyfriend's (Jonte Walker) apartment to see if he was outside, so she could talk to him regarding his care of their young daughter earlier that day. The women drove by the apartment and saw Jonte Walker outside, talking to defendant Allen. The SUV stopped, Lennisa Thomas and several other women got out, Lennisa and Jonte talked, and their discussion turned into an argument. Defendant Bass was seated in the SUV rear passenger-side seat. Bass testified that when the women were standing around Jonte Walker, Jonte and Lennisa were doing a lot of finger pointing and yelling. At one point, Bass opened her door and yelled to Lennisa to "come on, let's go." Bass testified that Lennisa got back in the SUV after ten or fifteen minutes, and was talking out of the SUV window to Sylena, Jonte's girlfriend, as the SUV started to pull out of the parking spot. Bass testified that the next thing she knew, she heard gunshots. She saw defendant Allen pointing a weapon at the ground and firing it. Bass, who was still seated in the rear seat of the SUV, sustained serious leg injuries when struck by a ricocheting bullet.
Defendant Allen testified that after the argument between Lennisa and Jonte had gone on for fifteen minutes or so, the women started ganging up on Sylena, and that he therefore went inside Jonte's apartment, retrieved his AK-47, came outside, and fired six or seven rounds at the ground, toward the SUV, to scare the SUV away. Defendant Allen testified that his father had given him $500 for Christmas, that he had bought the AK-47 the day before with the money from his father, and that the AK-47 was at Jonte's because defendant Allen's father was angry that Allen had bought it. When asked where he learned to use the AK-47, Allen responded "on the streets."
After the SUV drove away, defendant Allen went back in Jonte's apartment, called for a ride, and waited about 11/2 hours before his ride arrived. Allen did not know anyone had been injured until after he was arrested. Allen went to the same high school as Bass for a year and knew who Bass was, but they were not close friends. Both Allen and Bass testified that there had never been ill will between them. Allen testified that he did not realize that Bass was one of the occupants of the SUV on the night of the incident, as it was dark outside.
As a result of the incident, defendant Allen was arrested and charged with assault with intent to commit murder, assault with intent to cause great bodily harm less than murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm. Excerpts before us of Allen's preliminary examination include the district court's comments that it was dismissi
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