Physicians Insurance Co. of Ohio v. Swanson

A confrontation involving an insult, an obscene gesture, and a chase arose between two groups of teenagers swimming at a lake. Bill Swanson then retrieved a BB gun from his parent’s house and hid 70 to 100 feet from a picnic table where the other group was sitting. Bill shot three times, claiming that he aimed at a sign on a tree 10 to 15 feet from the picnic table only intending to scare the group. Shawna Wagler screamed when she felt a stinging in her thigh. A subsequent shot hit Todd Baker in his right eye, which he lost due to the injury. Baker’s parents sued Bill Swanson’s parents (defendants), who had two insurance policies, one from Physicians Insurance Company of Ohio (PICO) (plaintiff) and the other from Cincinnati Insurance Company (Cincinnati) (plaintiff). The insurance policies excluded coverage for expected and intentional injuries, the PICO policy through an exclusion and the Cincinnati policy through the definition of accident and an exclusion for intentional injury. The insurance companies sought a declaratory judgment that the exclusions exempted them from the duty to defend and indemnify the Swansons. The trial court found that Bill did not intentionally injure Todd, specifically that Bill did not shoot the BB gun with the intent to injure anyone or with the belief that such injury was substantially certain to occur. The court found that Todd’s injury was an accident and therefore covered under the insurance policies. The insurers appealed. The court of appeals reversed on the ground that it is the intentional nature of the act that controls whether there is coverage and that the specific injury need not be intended for the exclusion to apply. The appellate decision conflicted with a different appellate district’s decision, so the appellate court certified the record of the case to the Ohio Supreme Court for review.