California’s common law “notice-prejudice” rule is a fundamental public policy for purposes of choice of law analysis, and the rule applies to consent provisions in first-party insurance policies but not to consent provisions in third-party policies. (Pitzer College v. Indian … Read More

Where the insureds mistakenly provided their tax returns to the insurer’s attorney during investigation of a first-party claim, and the attorney then disclosed the returns to the insurer and its accountants, the attorney could be held liable for “invasion of … Read More

Where a commercial lease required a landlord to procure fire insurance for the benefit of a tenant, the landlord’s insurer could not pursue a subrogation action against the tenant for fire damage allegedly caused by the tenant. (Western Heritage Ins. Co. … Read More

An additional insured endorsement’s “care, custody, or control” exclusion did not relieve an insurer of a duty to defend its additional insured, a general contractor, in a construction defect lawsuit. (McMillin Homes Construction, Inc. v. National Fire & Marine Ins. Co. (2019) … Read More

Under California’s Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, a third-party claimant could challenge an insured’s release of a bad faith claim against an insurer after the insurer allegedly failed to accept a reasonable settlement demand within policy limits. (Potter v. Alliance United Insurance … Read More

A property insurer was not liable where the insured’s contractor cashed a jointly-payable check pursuant to a power of attorney granted in a construction contract. (Jozefowicz v. Allstate Ins. Co. (2019) 35 Cal.App.5th 829) Facts Stanley Jozefowicz owned a mobilehome for which … Read More

Despite California Government Code section 825.4, which generally prohibits public entities from seeking indemnity from employees, a public entity’s liability insurer was entitled to recover from its employees’ liability insurer. (Westport Ins. Corp. v. California Cas. Mgmt. Co. (9th Cir. 2019) 916 … Read More

An insured’s higher-layer excess policies did not incorporate lower-layer umbrella policies’ self-insured retentions, and did cover defense costs without regard to the outcome of the case. (Deere & Company v. Allstate Ins. Co. (2019) 32 Cal.App.5th 1230) Facts Deere & Company is … Read More

A California appellate court has held that there was sufficient evidence to support a punitive damage award against an insurer for bad faith delay in paying its insured’s claim for underinsured motorist benefits. (Mazik v. GEICO General Ins. Co. (2019) — Cal.App.5th … Read More

A California appellate court has broadly interpreted a subcontractor’s “duty to defend” a developer pursuant to the terms of an indemnity clause in the parties’ contract. (Centex Homes v. R-Help Construction Co., Inc. (2019) 32 Cal.App.5th 1230) Facts Centex Homes hired R-Help … Read More