Homeowner’s Policy Will Pay Shooting Victim

The insurance company that had written a homeowner’s policy for a Vietnam veteran, who later went berserk and killed his live-in girlfriend and two of her children, will pay as much as $12 million to the woman’s teen-age son who, though shot in the head, survived the incident in the ex-Marine’s Paramount home.

An attorney for Timothy Swanson, 14, said Thursday that the boy will be paid $12 million in cash and annuities over the course of his lifetime by Prudential Insurance Co., carrier of the policy.

However, a lawyer representing Prudential said his understanding of the payment structure puts the total closer to $6 million.

In any event, both sides agreed that the settlement in Compton Superior Court before the setting of a trial date in the 3-year-old case, was almost without precise legal precedent.

The incident in question occurred Oct. 12, 1981, in the Paramount home of Ronald Phillips, 32, a truck driver. Phillips, police said at the time, had been drinking all day and, dressed in combat fatigues and armed with a .357-Magnum revolver, apparently went berserk, killing his live-in companion, Cathy Swanson, 30.

He then shot and killed her sons, Robert, 4, and Jackie, 9 months, before fatally wounding himself.

Timothy, 10 at the time, was shot in the head, but has fully recovered physically from the wound and now lives with his father and stepmother in Texas.

A cache of 30 weapons, including a flame thrower, was found by sheriff’s deputies who entered the house after the shootings. Phillips’ blood alcohol content was measured at .34%, more than three times the legal definition of intoxication, the lawyers said.

Scott McCune, the Tustin attorney representing Timothy’s guardians, said Prudential was, at first, reluctant to pay the claim, because a clause in Phillips’ policy excludes coverage of damages that are intentionally committed.

Also, according to both McCune and Prudential’s lawyer, Mario A. Iorillo, there was a $300,000 limit on coverage for each incident. Prudential initially argued that the series of shootings constituted one incident, not four separate shootings, McCune and Iorillo said.

Both lawyers agreed that the insurance company was swayed to agree to a settlement by the argument that Phillips, in McCune’s words, “did not have the mental ability to perform an intentional act.” McCune said Phillips was “intoxicated and deranged” at the time of the shootings.

Apparent Precedent

Iorillo said Prudential was also influenced by McCune’s discovery of an apparent precedent last year in Florida appellate courts. In that case, a man barricaded in his home had fired a rifle several times, injuring two police officers in a short period of time.

The wounded officers sued the gunman’s insurance company, claiming the injuries had occurred in two distinct incidents, and won.

“We felt it (the Florida case) would be persuasive in California,” Iorillo said.

Iorillo said that Prudential, “once the legal issues were resolved (in pretrial negotiations) cooperated fully with the boy and his guardians.”