Blog Posts: Insurance

Many contracts or leases require one party to get insurance protection for the other party or landlord. Typically, they simply pass along the request for the insurance coverage to their insurance agent or broker and assume that their insurance will be updated to reflect the addition. To “prove” compliance with the contract requiring additional insuranc...

Yeager v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 2017 WL 491121 (Ariz. App. February 7, 2017) Memorandum Decision, a declaratory judgment action, the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected an Insured’s argument that she could stack UIM coverage’s in separate policies issued by the same Insurer. The Insured was involved in a single accident, but argued she made...

American Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Verdugo, 2017 WL 2211275 (9th Cir. 2017) Memorandum Decision, a coverage case arising from a homeowners policy, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an Arizona District Court’s holding that an Abuse Exclusion precluded coverage for derivative negligence claims against Insured’s who allegedly failed to preven...

Labertew v. Langemeier, 846 F.3d 1028 (9th Cir. 2017) The Ninth Circuit overruled the Arizona District Court’s dismissal of a garnishment filed by a Plaintiff/Assignee against an Insurer to collect a $1.5 million stipulated judgment entered against an Insurer pursuant to a “Damron Agreement.” Under a Damron Agreement, if an insurer refuses t...

City of Phoenix v. First State Ins Co., 2016 WL 4592906 (D. Ariz. Sept. 2, 2016) (Order), a coverage and bad faith case arising from an Insurer denying an Insured, the City of Phoenix, defense and indemnity from a personal injury claim resulting from asbestos exposure, the Arizona District Court held that the opinion of the Insured’s bad faith expert &l...

A “Morris Agreement” is a “settlement agreement entered into when the insurer is defending under a reservation of rights under which the insured stipulates to a judgment, assigns his rights against the insurer to the claimant, and receives in return a covenant from the claimant not to execute against the insured.” See Parking Concepts, ...

InStafford v. Burns, --- P.3d ---, 2017 WL 164310 (Ariz.App.January 17, 2017), amedical malpracticeand wrongful death case arising from emergency medical care rendered after a methadone overdose, the ArizonaCourt of Appeals “decline[d] to impose a requirement that Offers of Judgment be deemed reasonable before sanctions are imposed under Rule 68(g).” R...

InDoubleAA Builders, Ltd.v.Preferred Contractors Insurance Company, LLC,--- P.3d ----, 2016 WL 7508079, *1(Ariz. Ct. App. Dec. 30, 2016), the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgmentin favor ofanAdditional InsuredGeneral Contractorand found the“subcontractor exception”to the “your work” exclusiondi...

Guidelines to Assist an Insurer's Analysis of Whether a Court Will Find an Implied Waiver of the Attorney Client Privilege in Arizona Bad Faith Cases

In Quihuis v. State Farm, --- Ariz. ---, 334 P.3d 719 (Ariz. Oct. 1, 2014),[1] the Arizona Supreme Court recently held that a stipulated fact in a Damron Agreement that is both an element of liability and essential to establishing coverage does not bind an insurer in subsequent coverage litigation. In so holding, the Supreme Court clarified that stipulated facts i...