The insurer was allowed to reform its policy to exclude coverage for law enforcement after a police officer was involved in an altercation with two town residents. The Eighth Circuit held the inadvertent failure to include a law enforcement exclusion was a mutual mistake and the policy would be reformed to reflect the parties’ true intentions.
The insurer issued a commercial insurance policy to a property owners’ association, and both the insurer and the association intended for the policy to exclude coverage for law enforcement. Specifically, the insurance agent informed the insurer that the policy would not need to include law enforcement coverage because another insurer already insured the association against law enforcement liability. The insurer accidentally omitted the exclusion from the policy. Following an altercation involving a police officer of the insured and two residents, the insurer sued the association, office,r and two residents seeking a reformation of the insurance contract.
The district court granted the insurer’s motion for summary judgment and the Eighth Circuit affirms. This court stated that
…the uncontroverted evidence in this case demonstrates that [the insurer], [the agent] and [the association] intended to enter into an insurance policy that excluded coverage for law enforcement.
Harleysville Worchester Insurance Company v. Diamondhead Property Owners Assn., United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, February 4, 2014.