I am looking for information dicussing home insurance policy coverage
when someone (other than the homeowner) is killed (1) by the
homeowner's minor child or (2) on the homeowner's property.

Hi dman-ga,

First I need to note the standard disclaimer, that this does not
constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney and/or an
insurer if you need a professional opinion.  That out of the way,
thanks for your intriguing question, which is really in two parts...

1) My research indicates that, as a general rule, homeeowner insurance
policies liability coverage specifically excludes liability for
intentional acts by an insured, which would include the homeowner's
minor child. Murder, obviously, would usually be termed an
"intentional act." But what if the murderer was insane? Would that
still be considered an "intentional act?"

Allstate's homeowner's policy, for one, excludes acts by an insured
person while insane, and in least in one case in 1995, judgement was
for Allstate.

The specific language of the policy in question read...

"Losses We Do Not Cover:
      "1.   We  do  not  cover bodily injury or  property  damage
resulting from:

           "a)   An act or omission intended or expected  to
     cause bodily injury or property damage.  This exclusion
     applies even if the bodily injury or property damage is
     of  a  different kind or degree, or is sustained  by  a
     different  person  or property, than that  intended  or
     expected; or
           "b)   An  act or omission committed by an insured
     person   while  insane  or  while  lacking  the  mental
     capacity to control his or her conduct or while  unable
     to  form  an intent to cause bodily injury or  property
     damage.   This  exclusion applies only if a  reasonable
     person  would  expect some bodily  injury  or  property
     damage to result from the act or omission.
      "2.   We  do  not  cover bodily injury or  property  damage
resulting from:
          "a)  A criminal act or omission; or
           "b)   An  act  or omission which is  criminal  in
     nature  and  committed by an insured person who  lacked
     the  mental capacity to appreciate the criminal  nature
     or  wrongfulness of the act or omission or  to  conform
     his or her conduct to the requirements of the law or to
     form the necessary intent under the law."

See

http://www.c-wiggins.com/opinions/cary.html

... for further details.

2) It's possible, (in fact, in a society prone to litigation,
probable) that a claim could be made that an insured was at least
partially liable for a murder on his or her property due to negligence
or an unintentional omission, for example, leaving a door or window
unlocked, or perhaps stretching it a bit, lack of proper lighting on
the property in a high-crime neighborhood. According to
PersonalInjuryLLawCal, "Although a [homeowner] has no legal duty to
protect another from the criminal acts of a third person, his/her duty
may arise when the criminal conduct of a third party is the
foreseeable result of a [homeowner's] negligence.  A fairly succinct
summary of premises liability can be found at the
PersonalInjuryLLawCal site...

http://www.personalinjurylawcal.com/personal-injury-premises-liability.html

Finally, if you're concerned about such liability, you might want to
consider a Personal Catastrophe Policy, also known as an "Umbrella
Liability" policy.  As noted at insurance.com from Fidelity
Investments...

"In today's society, it's not unusual to hear of $2-million,
$10-million, and even $20-million liability judgments against
individuals. If someone is injured in your home, or if you cause a
serious auto accident, you could be hit with such a judgment. Without
a personal umbrella liability policy, anything beyond the liability
coverage limits of your homeowners/renters or auto insurance policy
will have to come out of your pockets."

Full information is at
http://www.insurance.com/insurance_options/other/liability/liability_personal.asp

Obviously, this is an overview. You may want to use some of the same
search strategies on Google that I did to explore further.

Homeowners insurance negligence liability

://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Homeowners+insurance+negligence+liability

murder homeowner insurance negligence

://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=murder+homeowner%27s+insurance+negligence

homeowner insurance liability exclusions

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=murder+insurance+homeowner+negligence+liability

rico

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Request for Answer Clarification by dman-ga on 08 Aug 2002 21:17 PDT

I was specifically looking for articles discussing the parents'
liability for negligently supervising the child.  What recovery can be
had under the homeowner's policy?

---

Clarification of Answer by rico-ga on 09 Aug 2002 05:15 PDT

My apologies that my answer didn't meet your needs, dman-ga.
Unfortunately, your request for clarification asks for a level of
specificity that I'm unable to provide. I've notified the Google
Answers Editors. I suggest that you also contact them at
answers-support@google.com and request that your question be reposted,
using the text from your clarification request to ensure you get the
answer you want.  As noted by expertlaw-ga in the comments below,
there are several expert legal researchers active in Google Answers,
and one with more resources than I have may be able to provide you
with the articles you're looking for. Again, sorry I couldn't help
further.

regards,

rico-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by rico-ga on 09 Aug 2002 10:15 PDT

After several more hours of looking, the one article I *was* able to
find which seems to meet the general requirements of your question is
MEALEY'S LITIGATION REPORT, February 5, 2002, which briefly discusses
"Automobile Club Ins. Co. v. Mills", where the Ohio Supreme Court
relying on earlier case (Doe v. Shaffer) one month earlier, concluded
that coverage was available to a mother under her homeowner’s policy
for negligent supervision and failure to warn claims brought against
her, arising out of her son’s murder of his fiancée, while the couple
was
living in the mother’s home.

The full article is in PDF format at

http://vu.iiaa.net/Docs/PDF/10MostSignificantInsuranceCoverageCourtCasesOf2001.pdf

while not specific to your question, you may also want to look at "ARE
PARENTS LIABLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN'S ACTS" at...

http://www.henrybeaver.com/pawin02.asp#parent

and "Auto Accident...PAP or HO? The Adjusters Say Neither, We Say
Both"

http://vu.iiaa.net/Lib/Ins/PL/Auto/FacultyPAPHO01.htm

If you don't feel this satisfies your question, please feel free to
request that your question be reposted, as I noted earlier.

regards,

rico

for any country ?
Curepi

Insurance policies are contracts, and thus whether or not coverage can
be significantly affected by the terms of the policy.

Researcher weissto-ga provided an analysis of "negligent supervision"
as a cause of action against parents for the wrongful acts of their
children, which can be read at:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=43755

Depending upon the facts, state law, and the terms of the policy, it
is possible for the insurance to cover a parent's negligent
supervision, even if it would not cover the child's wrongful act.

This would depend on specific insurance contracts which often include
statements about not covering anything which isn't specifically
included.

Also, you are probably talking about a criminal act and I don't know
of any insurance policies which indemnify people from the consequences
of that sort of illegal acts other than policies which cover
court/legal costs. Since some parents are being held criminally
responsible for the foreseeable actions of minor children, this
applies both to the child and parent.

There are also questions of whether it would be against public policy
to write such insurance and hence whether any such contract would be
considered enforceable in the courts.

Just some thoughts on the subject I thought might prove helpful. This
isn't in any way an attempt to answer the specific question.