Insurance Claim – Coverage

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: Estate of Finely Olson, et al., v. Carrie Heller, et al.,

Case No.: 2020AP496

Officials: Brash, P.J., Donald and White, JJ.

Focus: Insurance Claim – Coverage

The Estate of Finley Olson, by its special administrator Rachel Olson, and Rachel and William Olson individually (collectively, the Estate) appeal the circuit court order granting American Family Mutual Insurance Company (American Family) summary and declaratory judgment that its insureds, Carrie and Timothy Heller (the Hellers), did not have coverage under their insurance policy through American Family (the Policy) for the claims related to Finley Olson’s death while in the care of the Hellers. The Estate argues that the business pursuits exclusion in the Policy would not apply because the Hellers were not licensed day care providers and the insurance policy language is vague and ambiguous. Additionally, the Estate contends that because Carrie was acquitted of criminal charges for running an unlicensed day care, issue preclusion bars the relitigation of whether Carrie was operating a home day care service. Alternatively, the Estate asserts that if the Policy’s business pursuits exclusion applies, then the non-business activities exception would also apply because Carrie was feeding her own child at the time of Finley Olson’s accident. We reject all of the Estate’s arguments and accordingly, we affirm.

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.