Insurance not liable in Cramm slayings

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

An insurance company is off the hook for damages to two families whose sons were gunned down and killed in south Everett in May 2000 by then 17-year-old Dennis Cramm.

A Snohomish County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that clauses excluding intentional acts that cause harm forbid the victims' survivors from filing a claim againt a homeowner insurance policy.

Judge George Bowden ruled in favor of Farmers Insurance Co. of Washington after the estates of Jesse Stoner and Jason Thompson sought coverage under the insurance policy held by Dale Cramm, Dennis Cramm's father.

"Reluctantly, I think Farmers has made their case," Bowden said.

The two 18-year-olds were gunned down in a car leaving a fight scene at the Cramm residence in south Everett. Dale Cramm arranged the fight between his son and another boy.

At the end of the fistfight, Dennis Cramm got a semiautomatic rifle and fired about a dozen shots. Stoner and Thompson, who had been spectators, were in a car pulling away when they were shot and killed.

Dennis Cramm was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and is now serving a 60-year prison term. Dale Cramm was later sent to prison for a year for a drug offense.

The estates of the two slain men and Farmers went to court seeking a ruling on whether the insurance company is liable for civil damages under the homeowner policy. The policy has a $500,000 limit.

In part, insurance lawyer Sidney Snyder of Seattle argued that the policy had a clause excluding liability for Dennis Cramm because it prohibited coverage resulting from any event "caused by an intentional act of any insured person where the results are reasonably foreseeable."

He told the judge that the jury in the criminal trial concluded that Dennis Cramm had created a dangerous situation by firing the weapon near people, and the results should have been foreseen.

Franklin Shoichet, one of the lawyers representing the victims' families, argued that someone else was the intended target, not Stoner and Thompson. He said the policy is ambiguous, and Farmers has a duty make it clear what is and is not covered.

"The burden on them is to make their meaning clear," Shoichet said. "Probably no one intended what happened here."

Bowden acknowledged it was a tragic event, and without the insurance it's unlikely the families will be compensated monetarily for their loss. He agreed with Snyder that the result of firing the weapon should have been foreseen.

Exclusion clauses for intentional or criminal acts are common in insurance polices written in this state, said Jon Osterberg, spokesman for the Washington Insurance Council, a trade organization for state insurance companies.

"These policies are designed to cover accidents, with the emphasis on the word 'accidents,' " Osterberg said.