Intentional Acts, Domestic Abuse and False Imprisonment Excluded: No Excuse, No Coverage, for Intentional and Criminal Abusive Conduct.

AuthorZalma, Barry

* Bad people do bad things. Forcing a woman to have an abortion; beating that woman, and imprisoning her while threatening to kill her mother, cut off her fingers and force her to act against her doctor's recommendations are all intentional and abusive conduct that is excluded by almost every policy.

Even after pleading guilty to a domestic abuse crime, Nikos Hecht had the unmitigated gall to sue his insurer for not providing a defense and indemnity brought against him by the abused woman.

In Nikos Hecht v. Great Northern Insurance Company, D/B/A Chubb, No. 18-1244, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (April 18, 2019) Nikos Hecht appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of his insurer, Great Northern Insurance Company (Chubb), which denied Hecht's claims based on policy exclusions for intentional acts and abuse committed by its insured.

FACTS

This case stems from a civil suit brought against Hecht by his ex-girlfriend, Brooke Warfel. According to the Warfel complaint, Hecht was physically and emotionally abusive, exhibiting behavior "indicative of the typical patterns of domestic violence and abuse." Her allegations principally focused on two factual events in which he coerced her to have an abortion against her physician's advice and falsely imprisoned her in a remote cabin.

Warfel allegedly agreed to have the abortion in Mexico by the individual known to Hecht, though this person turned out to be "closer to a nurse practitioner,... not an ob/gyn as promised by Hecht". Although this provider gave Warfel drugs to terminate the pregnancy, causing "excruciating abdominal pain," the procedure resulted in a failed abortion.

Regarding the cabin incident, the Warfel complaint alleges that in July 2015, while Warfel recovered from a second abortion that she underwent at Hecht's insistence, the couple spent three nights in a remote cabin. On the last night, Hecht allegedly lost his temper, prompting her to start packing her clothes. He "became irate," threw her clothes all over the room, refused to let her leave, and "threatened to punch her in the face." As the situation escalated, Hecht allegedly threatened to kill her mother and "to get[] a big black n***er to cut off [her] ring on her finger and knock her teeth out." He also "pushed her so hard that she fell and hit her head on the concrete floor" and physically prevented her from leaving the cabin until the next day.

After Warfel was able to leave the...

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