Insurance Claim – Coverage – Jurisdiction

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WI Court of Appeals – District IV

Case Name: Adam Kodra, et al., v. Harold Fredd, et al.,

Case No.: 2020AP1989

Officials: Kloppenburg, Fitzpatrick, and Graham, JJ.

Focus: Insurance Claim – Coverage – Jurisdiction

Adam Kodra sued Harold Fredd, Fredd’s business, Northern Precision Rifles, and Fredd’s purported homeowner’s insurer, USAA Casualty Insurance Company, alleging that Fredd’s negligence in customizing Kodra’s rifle caused the injuries that Kodra suffered when he subsequently fired the rifle and it exploded. In this appeal, Kodra challenges two decisions by the circuit court. In the first decision, the court denied Kodra’s motion for default judgment against USAA Casualty, the insurance company initially sued and served by Kodra. In the second decision, after United Services Automobile Association was substituted as the correct defendant insurance company, the court granted United Services Automobile Association’s motion for summary judgment based on the court’s conclusion that two exclusions in Fredd’s United Services Automobile Association insurance policy apply to bar coverage for Kodra’s injuries.

We conclude that we lack jurisdiction over Kodra’s appeal of the first circuit court decision because Kodra failed either to timely seek leave to appeal the non-final order denying his motion for default judgment against USAA Casualty or to timely appeal the subsequent final order substituting United Services Automobile Association as the defendant insurer and thereby dismissing USAA Casualty as a party. As to the second circuit court decision, we conclude that the undisputed facts establish that United Services Automobile Association is entitled to summary judgment because, given that Fredd was required to and did have a federal license to perform the work of customizing Kodra’s rifle, the “professional services” exclusion in Fredd’s United Services Automobile Association insurance policy applies to bar coverage for Kodra’s injuries allegedly resulting from that work. Accordingly, we affirm.

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.