Insurance Coverage Summary Judgment

Jennifer Eubanks, a member of the firm’s Insurance Coverage Team, obtained summary judgment for an insurance company client in a case in which the plaintiff alleged bad faith and breach of contract in the handling of an insurance claim.  The case involved a homeowner's policy and the insured wife's attempt to collect benefits after her husband shot her and then took his own life.  The insured wife argued that the shooting was not intentional because her husband had a mental illness and had failed to take his medication.  Ms. Eubanks took over representation of the insurer from another firm with the case already on a trial docket, quickly took depositions and prepared the case for trial.  She moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the policy excluded claims for personal injury made by an insured and that the husband's actions were intentional, though irrational, and excluded under the policy's intentional acts exclusion.  The trial judge heard the motion after a jury had been seated, took the motion under advisement and dismissed the jury.  Several weeks later, he granted the insurer's motion for summary judgment.