Foremost Insurance Company Grand Rapids Michigan v. Patrick Lathrop, et al.

Summary

The court grants Foremost Insurance Company’s motion for summary judgment in a declaratory judgment action concerning its duty to defend and indemnify Patrick Lathrop. Applying Washington’s eight-corners rule, the court concludes that the underlying complaint alleges intentional torts not covered by the homeowners insurance policy. The court also holds that Lathrop is collaterally estopped from relitigating his self-defense claim because a criminal jury rejected that defense when it convicted him of first-degree assault.

Holdings

1. Under Washington's eight-corners rule, the duty to defend is determined from the allegations in the underlying complaint and the insurance policy. Because Delano's complaint unambiguously alleged that Lathrop intentionally assaulted and battered him, and those allegations were not conceivably covered, Foremost had no duty to defend.
2. Lathrop was collaterally estopped from relitigating the reasonableness of his use of force and asserting that the policy's reasonable-force exception preserved coverage.
3. Foremost had no duty to indemnify Lathrop because the policy did not cover the intentional acts underlying Delano's claim.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the allegations in Delano's underlying complaint potentially triggered Foremost's duty to defend under the homeowners insurance policy.
2. Whether the policy's intentional-act and crime exclusions barred coverage for Delano's intentional-tort claims.
3. Whether Lathrop was collaterally estopped from asserting that he used reasonable force in self-defense based on his criminal assault conviction.
4. Whether Foremost owed Lathrop a duty to indemnify him in the underlying action.

Disposition

other