HOME OWNERS INSURANCE CO V WILLIAM R TOLLEY JR
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE COMPANY,
UNPUBLISHED
March 22, 2007
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 271322
St. Clair Circuit Court
LC No. 05-001344-CK
WILLIAM R. TOLLEY, JR., and ANGELA
TOLLEY,
Defendants,
and
JASON A. WIEGAND,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Hoekstra, P.J., and Markey and Wilder, JJ.
WILDER, J. (concurring).
In Burkhardt v Bailey, 260 Mich App 636, 656, 680 NW2d 453 (2004), this Court noted
that “the unilateral subjective intent of one party cannot control the terms of a contract.” This
finding is consistent with the holding in Wilkie v Auto-Owners Ins Co, 469 Mich 41; 664 NW2d
776 (2003), cited in Burkhardt at p 657, that the use of the reasonable expectations doctrine to
interpret an unambiguous contract was inappropriate.
In light of Wilkie, I would conclude that Harrington has been overruled insofar as
Harrington requires examination of the insured's subjective intent or, stated another way, the
insured's reasonable expectations. Nevertheless, I agree that the contract language is
unambiguous, and that that reasonable minds could not differ in determining that Tolley acted
intentionally “despite [her] awareness that harm was likely to follow from [her] conduct.”
Accordingly, I join with the majority in affirming the trial court.
/s/ Kurtis T. Wilder
-1-
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
