$9M Coverage Claim Defeated
On July 23, 2015, a judgment was obtained in favor of a liability insurer on a claim to recover more than $9,000,000 of an underlying tort judgment. The client was an excess insurer that had a $10,000,000 coverage layer above a $2,000,000 primary policy. The plaintiff had obtained an $11,000,000 judgment against the insured and sought to collect the amount exceeding the primary coverage, plus interest, from the excess insurer.
Following a bench trial and heavy briefing, the excess insurer was held not liable due to the insured’s employer’s breach of the policy’s notice provision and prejudice suffered as a result of the breach. The court also agreed the excess insurer was entitled to challenge the reasonableness of the underlying judgment, but the issue of whether the judgment was or was not reasonable was not reached due to the favorable ruling on the notice issue.
The suit was litigated in the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
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