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Associated Aviation Underwriters v. Wood9/29/2004
that Yvonne Montejano was first exposed to TCE during the occurrence policy period, she suffered sufficient bodily injury to trigger insurance coverage under that policy. Accordingly, the trial court's March 2003 judgment as to Yvonne Montejano is reversed. 84
II. Intervenors Lopez and Estes
Intervenor Edward Lopez appeals from the March 2003 summary judgment entered against him. As noted above, see 64, supra, the trial court's basis for entering judgment against Edward Lopez was that Lopez claimed to have been exposed to TCE while living outside the area impacted by TAA/City's TCE contamination. As with Peter Paul Lopez, however, the alleged flaw in Edward Lopez's claim is one of causation. That is, AAU claims judgment was properly entered against him because he had not been exposed to TCE for which TAA/City was responsible, if at all. Under Morris, however, AAU is precluded from challenging that point. Therefore, because AAU raises no other grounds for defeating Edward Lopez's claim, the trial court erred in entering judgment against him.
We must also reverse the trial court's entry of summary judgment against intervenor Frances Estes. Before the phase I trial and subsequent ruling, the trial court entered judgment against her because she alleged she had been exposed to TCE before AAU's accident policy took effect. Under the continuous trigger theory, however, that Estes was exposed before the policy period -- a fact AAU does not challenge -- means she suffered "bodily injury " during the policy period in the form of exposure-in-residence. Such injury was sufficient to trigger coverage under AAU's accident policy, and the trial court erred in entering summary judgment against her. 85
III. Intervenors' Request for Money Judgment
A. Procedural Background
After the trial court entered its April 2002 ruling in favor of Intervenors on the issue of reasonableness, Intervenors filed a proposed form of judgment that included a monetary award for the fourteen trial intervenors. AAU objected to the proposed judgment, arguing that a monetary award is not available in a DRA and that a third-party claimant may collect from an insurer only through a garnishment action. AAU further argued any attempts to institute a garnishment action at that point would be futile because, according to AAU, the underlying Gerardo judgments had expired and, therefore, there was no basis for a garnishment action.
As noted earlier, in September 2002, the trial court issued its "Judgment For the Fourteen Intervenors Under Consideration in Phase Two." At that same time, the court ruled on AAU's objection to Intervenors' proposed judgment, stating: "the issues in this declaratory relief action primarily involve issues of coverage and reasonableness of the Morris agreements. Accordingly, the Court SUSTAINS the objections asserted by AAU" to Intervenors' proposed judgment. But the trial court further noted:
In sustaining the objections... the Court makes no ruling whatsoever as to the validity or invalidity of any judgments in favor of Intervenors in any other matter, including, but not limited to, whether or not the Judgments in favor of Intervenors in any other matter are expired or unenforceable; whether there is an underlying debt or obligation in favor of Intervenors to enforce; whether or not laches, estoppel, or any other defense in any action on the Judgment, garnishment action or similar action with respect to the underlying Judgments in related cases are available to the parties in this case.
Notwithstanding its refusal to sign Intervenors' proposed judgment and award them monetary relief, the trial court ordered in
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