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A federal district court in Pennsylvania has ruled that an insurance company must provide a defense to a teenage boy who was sued by the parents of a girl who committed suicide after he allegedly cyberbullied her.

The Case

As alleged in a lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania state court by Julia Morath's parents against Zach Trimbur, a high school student, and his parents, before April 7, 2017, Trimbur “harass[ed], bull[ied], and/or cyberbull[ied]” an unnamed classmate, Jane Doe.

The state court lawsuit alleged that high school administrators informed Trimbur's parents of their son's behavior, and they “assured” the administrators they would “supervise, discipline, and/or control their son.” They “ensure[d]” the school administrators their son “would not engage in similar behavior in the future.”

Despite those assurances, the state court lawsuit alleged, Trimbur continued his conduct. At some unspecified time “in the days before April 7, 2017,” he texted his classmate, Morath:

“That's ok with me, so go back to your hellhole of a home and sit in your room and let some more guys come and penetrate you as you desperately reach out for any attention you can grasp because you are afraid of everything and anything. No one cares about your health issues and how you are an anorexic, bulimic, receding hairline c— who goes home and cuts herself every night to cope with the fact that guys will only ever do anything with you due to the fact that you are easy and that your own mother doesn't even love you. So then you have to go back to a hospital with all of your other freak show disabled people that don't know how to stick a piece of food in there [sic] mouths. You claim to cut people off but no one cares about you enough to give a shit. Also you should probably work better on covering up your scars located on EVERYWHERE on your fucking body because they make you look more repulsive than you already do. Best regards,”

The state court lawsuit alleged that Morath felt “distraught with severe mental and emotional pain and suffering.” She showed the text message to her parents, who then informed school administrators of the message on April 6, 2017. The high school suspended Trimbur the same day, but he allegedly “continued to harass, bully, and/or cyberbully” Morath after his suspension.

Morath died by suicide April 7, 2017.

The homeowners' insurance company for Trimbur and his parents, State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., sought a declaratory judgment that it had no duty to provide a defense to Trimbur.

State Farm contended that “the alleged bodily injury sustained by Julia Morath did not arise from an 'occurrence'”—that is, an “accident”—triggering coverage under the policy, because Trimbur's “harassment, bullying and cyber-bull[y]ing [was] inherently non-accidental in nature.”

Trimbur countered that Pennsylvania law required that the court consider the foreseeability of the injury from his perspective, and that although he could not dispute sending the text message, Morath's death by suicide constituted an extraordinary intervening event far beyond anything contemplated in the text message and unforeseeable as to him.

The parties moved for judgment in their favor.

The District Court's Decision

The district court granted Trimbur's motion for judgment on the pleadings.

In its decision, the district court explained that the Moraths, in their individual capacities and as co-administrators of their daughter's estate, sued Trimbur for negligence, as well as wrongful death and survival. They alleged that Trimbur's conduct was “unreasonable, negligent, grossly negligent, careless, and reckless and [he] intentionally breached his duty to exercise due care generally” and in various particular respects, including, among other things, his “fail[ure] to use his cell phone in a reasonable manner” and acting “with a reckless disregard to Julia Morath's health and safety.”

The district court decided that State Farm had to defend Trimbur because the negligence claim against him fell within the scope of the “occurrence” language in the State Farm insurance policy.

According to the district court, viewing the events from Trimbur's perspective, it could “not conclusively find” that death by suicide was “foreseeable from his cyberbullying” because suicide constituted an independent intervening act “so extraordinary as not to have been reasonably foreseeable by the original tortfeasor.”

The district court concluded that, from Trimbur's perspective, his classmate's death by suicide was “an accident,” and the Moraths' negligence claim fell within the scope of the State Farm policy.

The case is State Farm Fire and Casualty v. Motta.

Steven A. Meyerowitz is the director of FC&S Legal, editor-in-chief of the Insurance Coverage Law Report and founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc.