A child tragically died at a home daycare business which charged parents about $25 a day per child. The owner’s insurer sought a declaratory judgment that it did not have a duty to defend or indemnify the owner in a wrongful death action brought by the deceased child’s mother. The insurance policy specifically excluded coverage for incidents arising from home day care services exchanged for “monetary or other compensation.” To get around this exclusion, the deceased child’s mother sought to characterize the $25 payment as a reimbursement, rather than compensation. The panel rejected this interpretation of “compensation,” looking to Black’s Law Dictionary and analogous case law. Under the insurance policy’s plain language, “exchange of cash for babysitting services” unambiguously qualified as “compensation.” Thus, the insurer did not have a duty to defend or indemnify the daycare’s owner in the underlying wrongful death lawsuit.
