California
Request for Depublication: Stephens v. Fireman’s Fund
Year: 2015
Court: California Court of Appeal, First District, Division One
Case Number: A135938; A136740
Issue:
  • Replacement Cost Value
  • Tort v. Contract Damages
State:
  • California

UP submitted this letter requesting depublication of the decision in Stephens & Stephens XII, LLC v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. (A135938; A136740, Certified for Partial Publication November 24, 2014; 231 Cal.App.4th 1131, modified at 231 Cal.App.4th 1437d) based on legal errors in the opinion with…
Grayson v. Allstate Ins. Co.
Year: 2014
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Case Number: 14-55959
Issue:
  • Bad Faith
State:
  • California

Under California law, the duty of good faith and fair dealing is implied in all insurance contracts. When an insured purchases insurance, they expect that their insurance carrier will act in good faith when they themselves tender a claim and also where an injured third-party…
Gordon Blackwell v. Foremost Ins. Co.
Year: 2016
Court: California Supreme Court
Case Number: H042263
Issue:
  • Appraisal
State:
  • California

UP submitted a letter urging the California Supreme Court to grant review on a very important issue for homeowners: whether an insurance company whose policy contains an appraisal provision as a pre-requisite to a lawsuit, can litigate a case for two years and then on…
Paslay v. State Farm
Year: 2016
Court: California Court of Appeal
Case Number: B265348,
Issue:
State:
  • California

UP submitted a request to depublish a portion of an appellate opinion which improperly made a finding of fact about an insurance bad faith dispute. In the case, the insured, while waiting for the adjuster to come to the house to inspect the damage, began…
Patriot Cleaning Services v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London
Year: 2016
Court: California Supreme Court
Case Number: S233277
Issue:
  • Reasonable Expectations of Coverage
State:
  • California

In a theft case, UP submitted a letter supporting review on two grounds: First, the trial and appellate courts erred in allowing a motion for summary judgment to survive despite a reasonable inference (in this case that the doors to a van could have been…
Association of California Insurance Companies et al. v. Dave Jones, in his capacity as Insurance Commissioner for the State of California
Year: 2016
Court: California Supreme Court (California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division One)
Case Number: B248622/S226529
Issue:
  • Regulatory Authority
  • Replacement Cost Value
  • Underinsurance
State:
  • California

After every wildfire UP has worked since 1991, over 50% of the victims who thought they were fully insured turned out to be insured for less – often far less – than they needed to cover repairs and rebuilding. We refer to this as “the…
Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation v. Ledesma and Meyer Construction Co., Inc.
Year: 2017
Court: California Supreme Court
Case Number: S236765
Issue:
  • Accident/Occurrence
  • Employee's Torts and Negligence
  • Employer's Vicarious Liability
State:
  • California

California courts have long held that liability insurance covers an employer’s vicarious liability for employee negligence as well as intentional torts. In countless decisions over the years, California courts have upheld coverage for employer’s vicarious liabilities for intentional, willful acts and torts of their employees…
Hotchalk Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co.
Year: 2017
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Case Number: 16-17287
Issue:
  • Duty to Defend
State:
  • California

In California, coverage wording in insurance policies are interpreted broadly so as to afford the greatest possible protection to the insured, while exclusions are construed narrowly and against the insurer. Exclusions must be conspicuous, plain and clear. If provisions in an insurance policy are ambiguous,…
Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Tempur-Sealy Int’l Ins. Co.
Year: 2017
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Case Number: 16-16056
Issue:
  • Duty to Defend
State:
  • California

The most fundamental obligation of a liability insurer is to defend it’s insured against suits alleging bodily injury or property damage. The duty to defend is broader than the duty to indemnify. This duty is triggered when any of the allegations of the complaint potentially…
Stein v. AXIS Insurance Company
Year: 2017
Court: California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One
Case Number: B265069
Issue:
  • D & O
  • Directors & Officers
  • Final Adjudication
  • Fraudulent or Criminal Acts
  • Scope of an Exclusion
State:
  • California

In this letter requesting publication, UP urged publication because the decision addresses an issue of great importance to the insurance community, on which there is no published appellate decision, and no citable California decision: for purposes of standard form exclusions in director and officer (“D&O”)…
Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. San Francisco Superior Court
Year: 2018
Court: California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Two
Case Number: A153198
Issue:
  • Post Claims Underwriting
State:
  • California

UP wrote in opposition to a writ sought by the insurance company that would overturn a trial court ruling that held that an insurance company may not rescind a long term care insurance policy after the contestability period based on impermissible application questions. The trial…
Office Depot, Inc. v. AIG Specialty Ins. Co.
Year: 2017
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Case Number: 17-55125
Issue:
  • Negligent or Reckless Speech
State:
  • California

Insurance policies rarely, if ever, exclude coverage for negligent or reckless conduct. In fact, individual consumers and businesses purchase liability insurance for liabilities arising precisely from such conduct. In contrast, intentional acts undertaken with the intent to injure, are rarely insured. California courts look at…
Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Superior Court (Montrose IX)
Year: 2017
Court: California Supreme Court
Case Number: B272387/S244737
Issue:
  • Allocation
  • Excess Insurance
State:
  • California

UP submitted letters requesting depublication of the appellate decision and supporting review by the California Supreme Court. In it’s letters UP argued that the Montrose IX Court created new and bad law by (a) adopting a coverage-minimizing reading of the term “underlying insurance,” in contravention…
The Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. v. Federal Ins. Co.
Year: 2017
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Case Number: 15-55777
Issue:
  • Reasonable Expectations of Coverage
State:
  • California

Fundamental principles of California insurance law ensure that coverage exclusions are construed narrowly to avoid defeating the mutual intentions of the parties and, particularly, the reasonable expectations of the insured. California law does not consider words of an insurance policy (or any contract) in isolation.…
Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Ins. Co.
Year: 2017
Court: California Supreme Court
Case Number: S239510
Issue:
  • Notice-prejudice
State:
  • California

The notice prejudice rule protects policyholders from undue forfeiture of benefits when they fail to report a claim within the applicable insurance policy’s deadline. California’s notice-prejudice rule allows a policyholder to file a claim after the reporting deadline if it can show that the late…
Comments to California Judicial Council on CACI No. 2334
Year: 2017
Court:
Case Number:
Issue:
  • Bad Faith
State:
  • California

UP submitted comments to the California Judicial Council in response to proposed changes to California Civil Jury Instruction 2234 – Bad Faith (Third Party)—Refusal to Accept Reasonable Settlement Within Liability Policy Limits—Essential Factual Elements. UP pointed out four areas where the instruction needs revision: (1)…
Villanueva v. Fidelity National Title Co.
Year: 2018
Court: Supreme Court of California
Case Number: S252035
Issue:
  • Title Insurance
State:
  • California

UP’s Amicus Curiae Letter in Support of Petition for Review, or in the alternative Request for Depublication of Villanueva v. Fidelity National Title Co., S252035; published at (2018) 26 Cal.App.5th 1092 . Villanueva for the first time, strips California consumers of all rights to monetary…
ADIR International, LLC v. STARR Indemnity and Liability Co.
Year: 2020
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Case Number: 19-56320
Issue:
  • Duty to Defend
State:
  • California

People and companies that buy insurance to protect themselves from the cost of being sued by others, including by governments (as is the case here), depend on that insurance to pay for their legal representation. Without that vital coverage, many insureds will have no meaningful…