Hawaiian Insurance & Guaranty Co. v. Brooks

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

NAKAMURA, J.

The scope of a policy of basic automobile liability insurance is at issue in these appeals from summary judgments entered in favor of the insurer by the Circuit Court of the First Circuit. The dispositive question is whether the rape of a passenger in an insured vehicle by another passenger was an “occurrence” that gave rise to a duty on the insurer’s part of defending a tort suit brought by the victim against the driver. The circuit court held it was not, and we have to agree.

I

On November 14, 1976, as she walked along the highway between Kihei and Lahaina…