UNLICENSED DRIVER "BORROWS" GRANDPARENTS' VAN

Personal Auto	Permissive Use
Intentional Acts

Gertrude Finkley had an auto policy issued by Nationwide. On April 12, 1994, her grandson, Anwar Stembridge, left school and returned to her home during his lunch period. He retrieved the extra set of keys to her 1992 Chevy Astrovan and drove it back to school without her knowledge or consent. He had no driver's license. Upon returning home with her husband, and discovering that the van was missing, Anwar's grandmother reported it stolen. After school, Anwar and three friends went "joyriding" around Akron. When police attempted to stop the van, which they believed had been stolen, Anwar tried to escape. Failing to stop at a stop sign, the van crashed into a vehicle in which Dorothea and Sheko Poteete were riding. Both were injured. Anwar was arrested and charged with willfully fleeing a police officer.

Nationwide filed this action for declaratory judgment on the ground that its policy excluded injuries "caused intentionally by or at the direction of an insured, including willful acts the result of which the insured knows or ought to know will follow from the insured's conduct."

The trial court's entry of summary judgment in favor of Nationwide was affirmed, the higher court stating that "coverage for damages caused by intentional criminal activity, by willful flight from the police, flies in the face of . . . established public policy." (A discretionary appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio was not allowed . . . 673 N.E.2d 149.)

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company v. Finkley et al., Appellants--Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth District, Summit County--July 24, 1996--679 Northeastern Reporter 2d 1189.