 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Gaston County Dyeing Machine Co. v. Northfield Insurance Co.2/4/2000
e time frame within which the existence of "other insurance" causes United's coverage to be excess. The other insurance must be effective prior to 4 October 1991, and it must continue after 4 December 1986. Therefore, the Liberty Mutual CGL policy effective 1 July 1991 to 1 July 1992 is "other insurance" under the United policy.
Because the existence of the Liberty Mutual primary policy causes United's "other insurance" clause to be effective, the United policy is not co-primary as contended by Liberty Mutual. The United policy, by operation of its other insurance provision, is excess to the Liberty Mutual policy. Therefore, even though the United policy contains a standard insuring agreement found in most primary CGL policies, which would require it to defend Rosenmund against any suit for damages, in this case the following provision in the United policy takes precedence:
b. Excess Insurance
When this insurance is excess, we will have no duty under Coverages A or B to defend any "claim" or "suit" that any other insurer has a duty to defend.
International also contends that United provided primary coverage to Rosenmund and asserts that because its policy is a "pure" excess policy, it can never be made primary to United's "primary" policy. International is correct that its 1 July 1991 to 1 July 1992 occurrence policy is an "excess" insurance policy. Its insuring agreement provides that International will "indemnify the insured for that amount of loss which exceeds the amount of loss payable by underlying policies described in the Declarations." Clearly, the International policy was intended to cover losses only in excess of those covered by underlying insurance. However, the United policy is not listed in the International policy's declarations as an "underlying policy," and therefore, International did not issue its excess policy contingent upon the existence of the United policy. We disagree with International's assertion that its policy is in some way inherently excess to the United policy.
Further, for the same reasons articulated earlier, the International 1991-92 policy is "other insurance" by the terms of the United policy. The International policy is an occurrence-based policy, effective before 4 October 1991, and it continues after 4 December 1986. The United policy specifically provides that it is excess over any other insurance "whether primary, excess, contingent or on any other basis." (Emphasis added.)
The International policy also contains an "other insurance" clause, which provides as follows:
K. Other Insurance.
If other valid and collectible insurance is available to the insured which covers a loss also covered by this policy, other than insurance that is specifically purchased as being in excess of this policy, this policy shall operate in excess of, and not contribute with, such other insurance.
However, in this case, because the United policy is excess, it is not "available" within the meaning of the International policy's "other insurance" clause.
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the Court of Appeals on the issue of whether the United policy was excess to other coverage available to Rosenmund.
In sum, the portion of the Court of Appeals' decision holding that reformation of the Liberty Mutual policies to provide Rosenmund with products liability coverage was appropriate remains undisturbed. We reverse the remainder of the Court of Appeals' decision and hold (1) that an "injury-in-fact" trigger of coverage is appropriate in this case, where the date of property damage is known and undisputed; (2) that there was a single occurrence triggering t
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 North Carolina Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|