Brohawn v. Transamerica Insurance

This case presents the question of whether an insurer is entitled to a declaratory judgment that if has no obligation to either defend or indemnify its insured in actions brought by injured third parties based on alternative allegations of negligence and assault. The policy specifically excludes from coverage any act committed by the insured with the intent to injure, and the insured had pleaded guilty to assault in a previous criminal action arising from the same incident.

In November 1970 Mary Brohawn, the insured, and Martha Schmidt, her sister, went to a nursing home in Cumberland,.…