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Fieldcrest Cannon Inc. v. Fireman''s Fund Insurance Co.11/5/1996
r EEOC complaints, alleging sex discrimination and claims of defamation by Price. (hereinafter " Overcash /class action").
In regards to the Rosenthal suit, Cannon provided Johnson & Higgins, as defendant Fireman's Fund's agent, with timely written notice of the pending action by letter dated 25 January 1982. By letter dated 12 February 1982, Johnson & Higgins notified defendant Fireman's Fund of the Rosenthal suit and defendant Fireman's Fund denied coverage of the claims asserted by Mr. Rosenthal and refused to defend Cannon by letter dated 18 February 1982. Defendant Fireman's Fund's letter of denial characterized the claims in Mr. Rosenthal's complaint simply as discrimination claims, uncovered by plaintiff's policy.
After defendant Fireman's Fund refused to defend Cannon against the Rosenthal suit, Johnson & Higgins reported that suit to Mission, through Mission's general agent, Sayre & Toso, Inc. Johnson & Higgins advised Mission's agent that the primary insurer, defendant Fireman's Fund, had denied coverage and requested that Mission accept Cannon's defense under its umbrella policy. Subsequently, Mission agreed to defend Cannon against the Rosenthal suit by reimbursing its defense costs. Thereafter, Mission did reimburse Cannon's defense cost in the Rosenthal suit from the beginning of the case through February 1993, in the total of $7,245.72.
In early 1982, one of Cannon's in-house attorneys, Susan Hartzoge Gray, received a copy of a letter from Johnson & Higgins to Cannon's insurance manager, Joe Lambert, regarding the status of Mission's reimbursement of Cannon's defense costs in the Rosenthal suit. Upon receiving this letter, Ms. Gray reported the pending claims (the Price EEOC complaint, the EEOC sex class investigation, the Price suit and the Wilson suit) to Mr. Lambert, Cannon's insurance manager, who immediately reported the claims to Johnson & Higgins.
In February or March 1984, Gray, Lambert and Wayne Johnson, Johnson & Higgins' claims manager, met to discuss defendant Fireman's Fund's refusal to cover the Rosenthal suit, and the possibility of insurance coverage for the additional pending claims--the Price EEOC complaint, the EEOC sex class investigation, the Price suit and the Wilson suit. Because of Johnson's belief that defendant Fireman's Fund's policies would not cover the additional pending claims and that defendant Fireman's Fund would refuse to defend Cannon with respect to those claims--as they had with the Rosenthal suit--but that Mission or defendant North River might accept the defense, it was decided to report the additional claims directly to Mission and defendant North River, the umbrella carriers, rather than to defendant Fireman's Fund. In fact, evidence tended to show and the trial court found as fact that defendant "Fireman's Fund did not receive actual notice of the Price and Wilson lawsuits or the EEOC Class Investigation until the plaintiff filed this action." Later, after receiving notice of the additional pending claims against Cannon, the umbrella carriers acknowledged notice of the additional claims and corresponded with Johnson & Higgins seeking additional information about those claims.
By letter dated 5 February 1985, Cannon notified Johnson & Higgins of the Overcash /class action, which was filed in October 1984. Johnson & Higgins subsequently reported this lawsuit, by letter dated 14 February 1985, to defendant North River and Mission, requesting that they provide Cannon with a defense. By letter dated 22 October 1985, Mission's agent, Sayer & Toso, requested coverage determination from defendant Fireman's Fund as to the Overcash /class action. Thereafter, on 2
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