Lineberryv.State Farm Fire Cas. Co.

United States District Court, M.D. Tennessee, Nashville DivisionApr 4, 1995

William Edward Farmer, Lebanon, TN, Susan Kerr Lee, John P. Konvalinka, Grant, Konvalinka Grubbs, P.C., Chattanooga, TN, Michael E. Galligan, Galligan Newman, McMinnville, TN, for Dewey Lineberry.

John W. Wagster, Hollins, Wagster Yarbrough, Nashville, TN, for State Farm Fire and Cas. Ins. Co.

ECHOLS, District Judge.

Presently pending before this Court are Plaintiff Lineberry's Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiff Robinson's Motion for Summary Judgment, and Defendant State Farm's Motion for Summary Judgment. For the reasons outlined herein, Plaintiff Lineberry's motion is GRANTED, Plaintiff Robinson's motion is GRANTED, and Defendant State Farm's motion is DENIED.

Plaintiffs, Dewey Lineberry and Bill Robinson, seek a declaratory judgment requiring State Farm Fire Casualty Co. ("State Farm") to defend and indemnify them against actions in state court pursuant to personal liability policies of insurance issued by State Farm to Lineberry and Robinson. Lineberry and Robinson originally filed these actions in the Circuit Court of Wilson County, Tennessee, but State Farm subsequently removed them to this Court. Upon their removal, the two cases were consolidated, as the underlying facts and insurance policies are identical.

Plaintiffs are currently defending four separate actions brought in the Circuit Court of Wilson County, Tennessee by four women. The allegations of all four suits are essentially the same. Lineberry apparently had sexual relationships with the four women over the period of time stated in the lawsuits. In the course of building himself a new office building, Lineberry enlisted the help of Robinson to construct a "secret" viewing room adjoining the recreation room and the restroom of Lineberry's personal office. Two-way mirrors were constructed into the walls of the recreation room and restroom so that anyone in the viewing room could look through the mirrors and observe occupants of the recreation room and bathroom without the occupants' knowledge. The occupants of the recreation room and restroom could see only their own reflections in the mirrors. Lineberry and Robinson set up a video camera in the viewing room so that the persons and activities in the recreation room and restroom could secretly be filmed through the two-way mirrors.

On occasions Lineberry brought the unsuspecting females to his office where Robinson, who was hiding in the viewing room, secretly videotaped their sexual activities. Lineberry contends this scheme was approved or suggested by his attorney as a way to preserve proof of his sexual activities in the event one of his unsuspecting female guests falsely accused him of some impropriety. He maintains that this extraordinary precaution was taken only for his own protection, and that he had no intention of disclosing the video tapes of his sexual escapades to any other person. At some later time, Lineberry and his attorney had a dispute. Subsequently, Lineberry's attorney notified the Wilson County District Attorney of Lineberry's clandestine videotaping activities. After a search warrant was obtained, Lineberry's office was searched, and the tapes were seized by local law enforcement officials. The women depicted in the videotapes were then asked to come to the Sheriff's Department, identify themselves on the videotapes, and explain their actions. All four women deny they were aware they had been filmed.

Each of the four women filed a separate lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Wilson County. The suits charge Lineberry and Robinson with outrageous conduct, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud or constructive fraud, misrepresentation, appropriation, and invasion of their rights to privacy. Each of the women seek recovery for humiliation, mental distress, and emotional pain  and suffering which resulted from the actions of Lineberry and Robinson.

Both Lineberry and Robinson possess personal liability umbrella insurance policies with State Farm. They contend that pursuant to the provisions of those policies, State Farm must defend and indemnify them against the claims for invasion of privacy in the four lawsuits filed in Wilson County, Tennessee.

It is undisputed that both policies contain the same language relating to a covered "loss." Pursuant to the policies, if the insureds "are legally obligated to pay damages for a loss, [State Farm] will pay [the insured's] net loss minus the retained limit." (Docket Entry No. 44, Exhibit 1 at 3.) It also is undisputed that there is no retained limit in either Lineberry's or Robinson's policy. Therefore, for any losses covered by these policies, State Farm would be liable for the entire loss, up to the policy limit.

"Loss," as defined under the terms of both policies, means "an accident that results in personal injury or property damage during the policy period." (Id. at 1 (emphasis added).) "Personal injury," in turn, is defined as:

a. bodily harm, sickness, disease, shock, mental anguish or mental injury . . .;

b. false arrest, false imprisonment, wrongful eviction, wrongful detention, malicious prosecution or humiliation;

c. libel, slander, defamation of character or invasion of rights of privacy; and

d. assault and battery.

(Id. at 2 (emphasis added).)

The policies also contain a provision which excludes coverage for intentional acts or acts which are expected. Specifically, the policies provide that State Farm:

will not provide insurance . . . for personal injury or property damage:

a. which is either expected or intended by you; or

b. to any person or property which is the result of your willful and malicious act, no matter at whom the act was directed. (Id. at 4.)

Plaintiffs contend that State Farm, having specifically insured them against losses caused by the invasion of the right to privacy, must both defend them against the claims presented in the four lawsuits and indemnify them for any damages awarded to the four women. State Farm contends it is not required to defend or indemnify against these claims because the losses were not the result of an "accident" and the claims fall within the policy's exclusion for intentional or expected acts.

Plaintiffs counter Defendant's arguments by pointing to the language in the policy which defines "personal injury" by specifically listing a number of intentional torts, including invasion of the right of privacy. In other words, the losses insured against are those resulting in personal injury, which under the policy's definition includes certain types of intentional torts. An intentional tort is a civil wrong or injury which occurs as a result of the intentional act of another person. For example, one cannot commit an act of assault and battery accidentally. Likewise, one cannot be liable for malicious prosecution without intending to prosecute the victim. Plaintiffs further contend that one cannot invade a person's privacy by accident, because invasion of the right of privacy is inherently an intentional tort. Therefore, Plaintiffs allege that State Farm insured them against damages resulting from certain specific intentional torts, namely, invasion of right of privacy. However, in a separate section of the State Farm policy, under "Exclusions," the policy excludes coverage for injuries which were "intended or expected." Plaintiffs contend these provisions result in contradictory coverage or coverage which is ambiguous or merely illusory. Plaintiffs, therefore, maintain that the policy's ambiguity should be construed against the drafter, State Farm, and in Plaintiffs' favor.

Defendant alleges that the insurance policy provisions are not contradictory and the coverage is not illusory, because an invasion of the right to privacy is not necessarily an intentional tort. If that were correct, the policy would not necessarily be ambiguous, as the policy would cover injuries resulting from unintentional invasions of the right of  privacy and would exclude those which are intentional.

Because there are no genuine disputes of material fact and the crux of the dispute is the legal interpretation of the insurance policies, the parties have agreed to have the case resolved by means of cross-motions for summary judgment. In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, this Court must construe the evidence produced in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, drawing all justifiable inferences in his or her favor. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2513-14, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A party may obtain summary judgment if the evidentiary material on file shows "that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).

It is well-established that an insurance policy, which is nothing more than a contract between the insurance company and the insured, should be given its plain meaning. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Oliver, 406 F.2d 409, 410 (6th Cir. 1969); Purdy v. Tenn. Farmers Mut. Ins. Co., 586 S.W.2d 128, 130 (Tenn.Ct.App. 1979). However, where policy language is ambiguous, "the policy must be construed in favor of the insured and against the insurer." Purdy, 586 S.W.2d at 130; Oliver, 406 F.2d at 410; Allstate Ins. Co. v. Watts, 811 S.W.2d 883, 885 (Tenn. 1991). Exclusionary clauses are to be strictly construed against the insurer. Phillips v. Gov't Employees Ins. Co., 395 F.2d 166, 167 (6th Cir. 1968); Travelers Ins. Co. v. Aetna Casualty Sur. Co., 491 S.W.2d 363, 367 (Tenn. 1973).

There are four kinds of invasion of rights to privacy: (1) appropriation; (2) unreasonable intrusion; (3) public disclosure of private facts; and (4) false light publicity. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 652A (1977). Therefore, the inquiry regarding the necessary intent for invasion of the right to privacy requires that this Court examine all four forms of that tort. (Please look the comment section for the rest of the case)

questions

#1. The procedural history of the case/litigation (i.e. what happened since the filling of the petition/complaint within the court system including important motions and court rulings?)

#2. What is the court's decision?

Having issues starting an assignment. Still learning so If you don't mind could you explain

public Theater()

Initialize the 2-D array “seats”, with 3 rows and 4 columns. To assign the price
for each seat, you need to open and read from the file “seatPrices.txt”. The file
contains 12 doubles representing the price for each row. All seats in a given
row are the same price, but different rows have different prices. You also need
to initialize “totalSeats” to 0.

public void displayChart()

This method is required to print out the seating chart with costs of the seats
with a tab between columns in the same row and a newline between rows. So
the initial seating chart would be printed:
12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5
10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0
8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0

----

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.io.*;

public class Assignment8
{   public static void main(String[] args)throws IOException
   {
       Theater t = new Theater();
       char command;
       Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);

      
      
      
       // print the menu
       printMenu();
       do
       {
           // ask a user to choose a command
           System.out.println("\nPlease enter a command or type ?");
           command = keyboard.next().toLowerCase().charAt(0);
           switch (command)
           {
               case 'a': // display remaining seats
                   System.out.println();
                   t.displayChart();
           }/*                   break;
/*               case 'b': // Print total from sales so far
                   System.out.println("\nTotal: " + t.getTotal());
                   break;
               case 'c': // sell ticket

                   if (t.soldOut())
                       System.out.println("\nSorry we are sold out.");
                   else
                   {
                       System.out.print("\nEnter the row you want: ");
                       int row = keyboard.nextInt();
                       System.out.print("Enter the column you want: ");
                       int col = keyboard.nextInt();
                       if (t.sellTicket(row, col))
                           System.out.println("\nEnjoy the show!");
                       else
                           System.out.println("\nThe seat is sold and/or is invalid seat!");
                   }
                   break;
               case 'd': // print number of seats sold
                   System.out.println("\nNumber of seats sold: " + t.numSold());
                   break;

               case '?': // display menu
                   printMenu();
                   break;
               case 'q':   // quit
                   break;
               default:
                   System.out.println("Invalid input!");

           }

*/       } while (command != 'q');

   } //end of the main method

   // this method prints out the menu to a user
   public static void printMenu()
   {
       System.out.print("\nCommand Options\n"
           + "-----------------------------------\n"
           + "a: print seating chart\n"
           + "b: display total sales\n"
           + "c: sell ticket\n"
           + "d: display number of seats sold\n"
           + "?: display the menu again\n"
           + "q: quit this program\n\n");
   } // end of the printMenu method

}
-----

package assignment8;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Theater
{
//a two dimensional double array to hold the prices of the seats
//double to hold the total amount of sales generated from the theater.
   private double seats[][];
   double totalSales=0;
  
   String fileName="seatPrices.txt";
   String seatPrices="";
  
   static final int NUM_ROWS=3;
   static final int NUM_COLUMNS=4;
  
  
/*Initialize the 2-D array “seats”, with 3 rows and 4 columns
To assign the price for each seat, you need to open and read from the file “seatPrices.txt”. The file
contains 12 doubles representing the price for each row.
All seats in a given row are the same price, but different rows have different prices
*/
   public Theater()
   {
   Double seats[][]= new Double[NUM_ROWS][NUM_COLUMNS];
   int totalSeats=0;
   Double temp[][]=seats;
  
  
   try
{
// Instantiate a FileReader object to open the input file
// Note: "filename" should match the input file you made in Step 4
          
FileReader fr = new FileReader("seatPrices.txt");
//FileReader fr = new FileReader("/autograder/submission/" + fileName);
          
// BufferedReader is for efficient reading of characters
BufferedReader bfReader = new BufferedReader(fr);


// As we have determined the number of lines in our file, we will
// use constants to define the loop conditions

for (int r = 0; r {
for (int c= 0; c < NUM_COLUMNS; c++)
{
// Read a line from the file
// invoke .readLine() on the BufferedReader bfReader
// and save the returned value to the element at array position (i, j)
// -->
    seatPrices= bfReader.readLine();
    temp[r][c]=Double.valueOf(seatPrices);
      
   
   
}
seats=temp;

}
  
bfReader.close();

}
catch (FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.err.println("File not found");
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.err.println("I/O error occurs");
}
        
   }

   public void displayChart()
   {   
  
   for (int r = 0; r {
for (int c= 0; c < NUM_COLUMNS; c++)
{
   System.out.print(seats[r][c]+ "\t");
}
System.out.println();
   }

   }
}

-------

seatPrices.txt

12.50
12.50
12.50
12.50
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
8.00
8.00
8.00
8.00

I need to know what happens to the M1 and M2 for each (For 1 & 2). Answer choices are [increase, decrease, unchanged]

1.) Ethel pulls $10,000 out from under her bed and deposits it in her savings account. As a result M1 _______ and M2 _________

2.) Joel purchases a share of Microsoft Stock through a broker for $44 from Celeste. Joel pays for the stock with funds from his Money Market brokerage account and Celeste deposits the proceeds from the sale in her checking account. As a result of this transaction M1 ______and M2__________

3.)

Amira is a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who has been residing in a local homeless shelter since her arrival here in the United States 4 weeks ago. She was brought into the emergency room this morning via squad after being found by a shelter employee sitting in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor crying and holding her abdomen. Due to her limited English speaking abilities, she is unable to provide specific details as to her complaints but the shelter employee states that she has recently stopped eating and has not looked well for the past couple of days.

Based on the limited information provided, please answer the following questions.

How will you prioritize your care of Amira, what assessments will you complete, and in what order? Please provide rationale for choosing this order.

Are there any cultural beliefs/practices that must be taken into consideration when planning her care?

Considering her symptoms of abdominal pain and bleeding, is it possible that her status as a homeless refugee is a causative or contributing factor to her illness? Please provide rationale for your response.

Integrating PHRs with EHRs

You are the Director of Clinical Informatics at an academic medical center in the western United States. Part of your role is to oversee the patient portal which is considered part of the outpatient EHR. The center is planning to adopt and integrate a PHR with its EHR. The hospital CEO drafts of a vision statement that states, “By using the latest technology, University Hospital will improve how our patients experience Health Care. Instead of patients coming to us for help, we will be there whenever and wherever they need us, asking, ‘How can we help you?’ This initiative will make healthcare easier to access and more convenient to use, improve patients’ health, and reduce the rising cost of health care in our area.”

1. What is your role in engaging populations to understand information about their health and how to access health information resources?

2. What steps would patients take to correct their data?

3. What barriers should this facility anticipate and rolling out the PHR, and what tactics should the organization take to overcome them?

Consider the following quote from chapter 14 of the eText: ”The gap between the rich and poor in the United States …has been widening for some time. In recent years, the gap has been the widest since our government began to keep records on it in 1947”. For example, one report states that: “Since 2009, 95% of U.S. economic gains have gone to the wealthiest 1% of the population” (“Income Inequality: Why Does the Gap Keep Widening?” The Week Feb. 7, 2014).

Think about the growing income inequality in the U.S. think about the widening gap between the rich and the rest of us in America, How has the economic trend for middle-class Americans affected them? How as it affected you?

[2] Two examples of the marketization of society today that Sandel discusses are cash for grades and pay for getting around long lines. What, if anything, is wrong with these practices? Beyond what Sandel discusses, think of at least one social, personal, or relational good or value that you think would be negatively affected by marketization. And explain why.

You work for a large international corporation. The director of your department has called a meeting. He states that the company must always consider international issues when conducting business globally. Safe work environments, fair wages, abuse of child labor, unfair treatment of workers, the environment, and legal business practices are all topics that are unfortunately in the news all too often. Previously, these were problems or issues that were present in the United States. Fortunately, the legal system and regulations, for the most part, have made these issues a thing of the past. However, in many foreign countries, these problems still exist. Societies are bound to repeat their mistakes if they do not learn from the past. Therefore, consider an ethical issue faced by American businesses in the international arena. What should be the legal and ethical reaction of the business community for these types of violations?

If the issue was domestic, what would the proper solution be? How does conducting business internationally change your analysis? Do we have to consider ethics universally or it is specific to practices within a country?

For all problems below, use correct notation where appropriate.
Round all proportions to 3 d.p. and standard errors to 4 d.p.
1. (up to 5 EC pts) Do we dream in color? In the 1940s, before the age of television,
color movies, and video games, 29% of the American population reported dreaming in
color. A psychologist suspects that the present-day proportion might be higher, now
that we are surrounded with color imagery. In a random sample of 113 people, 92
reported dreaming in color (Schwitzgebel 2003).
a) State the parameter to be tested. Be specific and use the appropriate notation.
b) Conduct a hypothesis test to determine if the psychologist’s suspicion is
correct. Clearly show all 7 steps as shown in the lecture notes. Complete each
step by hand. Be sure to state the hypotheses in words and symbols.
c) In the context of this problem, what would it mean if we made a Type I error?
What is the probability of making this kind of error? (See 8.1,8.2 lecture notes.)