Johnson v. Insurance Co. of North America

In this insurance case, we decide whether an intentional injury exclusion clause in a homeowners policy precludes coverage for an insured who, while mentally ill, shot and injured a friend.

On February 10, 1982, Linwood Clyde Davis shot appellant Ker vin M. Johnson in Johnson’s home in the City of Richmond. Davis and Johnson had been acquainted for many years. Davis, age 27, formerly had been “a mild mannered type person.” Within two years before the incident, however, upon return from college in California, Davis became “flighty” and “spacey” with a history of drug use. During the period, he…