W. Agric. Ins. Co. v. Brown

In W. Agric. Ins. Co. v. Brown, 195 Ariz. 45, P14, 985 P.2d 530, 533 (App. 1998), the defendant had been found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder after the jury rejected his insanity defense. The defendant and the victims' survivors then sought insurance coverage for the murders under the defendants' bodily injury liability policy. Id. P1. Division One held that the intentional acts exclusion in the policy precluded coverage. Id. PP5-17. The court recognized that the insanity defense was not an element of first-degree murder because the defendant had the burden of proving that defense. Id. P14. And "although defendants have a higher burden of proof in criminal cases than in civil cases on the issue of insanity," the court held that allowing the assertion of that defense in a civil case "would be contrary to the clear intention of section 13-807." Id. It based its decision on the fact that a jury had rejected the insanity defense and decided the criminal defendant had acted with premeditation and either intentionally or knowingly, a finding that would directly conflict with the defendant's argument in the civil case that he had acted impulsively and negligently. Id. PP9-10.