Summary
finding molestation of children by an employee of the YMCA an intentional act and excluded from coverage
Summary of this case from State Farm v. TippettOpinion
No. 87-1392.
March 31, 1988. Rehearing Denied April 26, 1988.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Orange County, Claude E. Edwards, J.
Scott L. Sterling, Orlando, for appellants.
Michael M. Bell of Hannah, Marsee, Beik Voght, P.A., for appellant Shearer.
Thomas G. Kane of Kane Degailler, P.A., Rockledge, for appellee The Ins. Co. of the State of Pa.
An action was brought on behalf of children allegedly molested by an employee of a YMCA which was insured under a policy covering an "occurrence," defined in part as
The complaint alleges the YMCA employee "did act in a willful, wanton and reckless manner by sexually molesting" three young boys by fondling their genitals.
an accident . . . which results in bodily injury . . . neither expected nor intended from the standpoint of the insured.
From a summary judgment finding no coverage, this appeal results.
We affirm based on Landis v. Allstate Insurance Co., 516 So.2d 305 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987), which follows Judge Frank's dissent in Zordan v. Page, 500 So.2d 608 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), rev. denied sub nom., South Carolina Insurance v. Zordan, 508 So.2d 15 (Fla. 1987), and express direct conflict with the majority opinion in Zordan.
See generally Annot., Construction and Application of Liability Insurance Policy Expressly Excluding Injuries Intended or Expected by Insured, 31 A.L.R. 4th 957 (1984).
It is now well understood that the specific intent of the classic child molester is to do an act to gratify his own warped sexual desires. If, before his act, the molester thinks at all about the possible effect his act has on the child, he normally rationalizes that his act will not cause bodily injury or other harm to the child. In any event, insurance coverage does not depend on the child molester's "specific intent" to do or not to do bodily injury to the child. Regardless of the molester's subjective speculation, expectation, or intent to cause or not to cause bodily injury to a molested child, an intentional act of child molestation of a criminal character is not an accident.
See, e.g., Clemmons v. American States Insurance Co., 412 So.2d 906 (Fla. 5th DCA), 34 A.L.R. 4th 755, rev. denied, 419 So.2d 1196 (Fla. 1982).
AFFIRMED.
ORFINGER and DANIEL, JJ., concur.