Catania v. State Farm Life Insurance

I respectfully dissent from the holding of the majority. The insurance policy being considered does not cover or insure against a fatality caused by an intentional self-inflicted injury of any kind.

Here the injection of the heroin by Marc Catania was a bodily injury inflicted upon himself. The piercing of his body with the needle was intentional and not accidental. The resulting death was an ever present reality that should have been expected and foreseen.

In Gordon v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 260 A.2d 338, 340 (Md. 1970), that court said:

“. . . [w]ith the use of an illegal drug without…