Ore. Appeals Court Important Holding on Construction Indemnity Agreements

Just as the ball began to fall in New York to herald the New Year Oregon's Court of Appeals issued an important ruling on contractual indemnity agreements in construction contracts.  The decision isn't directly on insurance coverage, but is important because of the overlap between additional insured issues, contractual indemnity, and Oregon's "anti-indemnity" statute (ORS 30.140).  The progress of the case, Sunset Presbyterian Church v. Andersen Construction, has been closely watched because the trial court issued a written decision, one of the few on this subject.

Here is a bit of background: a  new addition to the church suffered from many problems, involving the work of several subcontractors (including one called "B&B"), as well as the general contractor, Andersen.  Andersen's form subcontract included a broad indemnity provision requiring all subcontractors to defend Andersen if suit was brought on the project.  Therefore, Andersen tendered the suit to its subcontractors.  B&B refused the tender.  Andersen settled with the owner, and assigned to the owner its claims against B&B for breach of the duty to defend.  The owner moved for summary judgment on the duty to defend, and prevailed.  However, the trial court awarded the church (as Andersen's assignee) no damages, because the church could not prove how much time Andersen's lawyers had spent dealing with the claims involving B&B's alleged negligence, as opposed to its own negligence or the negligence of other subcontractors.  The trial court relied on Oregon's anti-indemnity statute (ORS 30.140) -- which only applies to construction contracts -- as the basis for putting the burden on the church /Andersen to allocate the defense costs.  (I analyzed the trial court's ruling in more detail in an article for the June 2013 newsletter of the OSB Construction Law Section, available here,)

The church appealed, arguing that the statute did not require that kind of allocation for various reasons, including that the standard applied in the insurance "duty to defend" context should apply to the duty to defend in a contractual indemnity provision.  As a matter of insurance law, an insurer has a duty to defend all claims -- even claims that are not potentially covered -- if any one claim in a suit triggers the duty to defend.  The insurer may not allocate its defense costs based on covered versus uncovered claims.  The Court of Appeals rejected that argument as to ORS 30.140 (and all of the church's other arguments) based on the court's analysis of the legislative history.  However, the Court of Appeals did not reach many of the practical issues presented by the case, finding them moot because of the church's failure to even try to meet the burden of proof articulated by the trial court.  (See the Construction Law Section newsletter article mentioned above for an explanation of those issues).  The case was sent back to the trial court for additional proceedings including (potentially) an award to B&B of its attorney fees, since the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court as to who was the prevailing party.

The general take away is this: if a general contractor (or the GC's insurer) wants to recover its defense costs from a subcontractor that refuses to pick up the defense, it must require its law firm to write time descriptions in such a way that a court can later determine how much time was spent on the negligence of each subcontractor.  Of interest to readers of this blog, that requirement will likely lead to all kinds of issues between GC's and their insurers about management of the defense, and also may complicate additional insured claims on subcontractors, involving coverage counsel for the subcontractors.  Happy New Year!

Or. Fed Court Rejects "Hail Mary" Insurer Argument Against Attorney Fees

The dispute between Schnitzer Steel and its carriers over defense at the Portland Harbor Superfund Site has been addressed many times in this blog, because it has raised many novel and fascinating (to me, anyway!) issues.  Here is the latest: on November 12, 2014 Judge Mosman ruled on Schnitzer's motion for attorney fees after Schnitzer prevailed completely at trial this last April, recovering more than $8 million in defense costs.  Schnitzer then requested nearly $3.5 million in fees under ORS 742.061.  In response, the carriers tried a "hail mary" to zap the fee entitlement entirely: they argued that because the statute applies only to actions brought on an insurance policy "in any court of this state," and because actions brought in federal court are brough in a court in Oregon but not of Oregon, the statute did not apply.

Judge Mosman found the argument worthy of some consideration, but ultimately rejected it.  Judge Mosman held that under Erie and consistent with the purposes of the statute, a federal court in Oregon is a court "of the state."  The court noted that any other result would produce an anomaly: a case in an Oregon state court applying Oregon law would result in a fee award, whereas the same case that was removed as of right by an insurance carrier to federal court would not.

This is another important development in the protection of one of the few levers available to policyholders in Oregon because other than in the environmental arena (as of last year), the conventional wisdom is that there is no "bad faith" remedy where an insurance carrier denies a defense under a liability policy.  However, given the size of the attorney fee award (nearly all of what Schnitzer requested), the carriers certainly have an incentive to raise this issue again on appeal.

Ninth Circuit Asks Alaska Supreme Court Whether Recoupment Available to Insurers

Recoupment is the term most often used to describe the effort by an insurer to get back, from the insured, defense costs paid out where the claim was ultimately not covered.  Some kinds of policies -- principally professional liability and D&O policies -- have policy provisions specifically providing insurers this right.  (And, incredibly, some carriers without such provisions in their policies attempt to assert this right in their reservation of rights letters!)  Recoupment is controversial because if the right is asserted, it is a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of the insured as the underlying litigation progresses, and has in some cases impacted the resolution of an underlying case.

Alaska, by statute, requires insurers to pay for independent counsel where the defense is being conducted under a reservation of rights.  It contains no provision allowing recoupment, but that leaves open the question of whether an insurer may do so if the parties have agreed to recoupment by contract.  The Ninth Circuit, in Attorneys Liability Protection Society v. Ingaldson Fitzgerald, P.C.,, has now asked the Alaska Supreme Court to answer that question, which will no doubt involve not just the intent behind the statute, but also Alaska common law, which provided the genesis for the "independent counsel" requirement in the first place.  See CHI of Alaska, Inc. v. Emp'rs Reinsurance Corp., 844 P.2d 1113 (Alaska 1993).  This is an increasingly important issue for all kinds of policyholders, as the increasing costs of defending almost any sort of claim have increased the incentives for carriers to exercise their recoupment rights.

Washington Federal Court Orders Broad Discovery of AIG Defense Rates

A significant win for policyholders in a discovery dispute over internal carrier records.  AIG and Coinstar/Redbox have been locked in coverage litigation in the Western District of Washington for some time over AIG's obligation to defend Redbox in several class actions alleging that Redbox has violated privacy laws in its handling of consumer information.  Redbox lost a critical motion in February, when the court granted AIG summary judgment on the duty to defend some of those claims because of a broadly-worded statutory violation exclusion.

But another aspect of the dispute is the rates that AIG has been paying Redbox's defense counsel.  It appears that Redbox chose counsel that it thought would do the best job, but that AIG has refused to pay those lawyers' full rate, instead only agreeing to pay "panel" rates.  Redbox, apparently, is paying its lawyers the difference between what AIG will reimburse and the full rate, and that differential is now over $2 million.  These kinds of disputes are, unfortunately, quite common in high-stakes litigation where companies want to choose highly-qualified counsel for themselves.

In an effort to show that AIG acted in bad faith in setting its rates, Redbox demanded information on the rates that AIG has paid to defend insureds in other similar cases, and what rates AIG pays counsel in coverage cases where it has to defend itself.  AIG naturally refused (what else would you expect?) asserting that the information is not relevant, that it is proprietary, and that compiling the information would be unduly burdensome.  AIG also attempted to limit the disclosure to the rates that the specific AIG unit that provided insurance to Redbox (National Union) pays, rather than AIG as a whole.

The court rejected all of these arguments.  First, the court held that AIG had opened the door to discovery of rates paid by AIG and all of its subsidiaries by admitting that there is an AIG-wide committee that evaluates law-firm qualifications and sets panel rates.  Second, the court held that nothing in the policy permitted AIG to unilaterally or unreasonably set rates paid to defense counsel, invoking not only Washington law that circumscribes insurer control of defense counsel, but also the duty of good faith and fair dealing (the subject of a recent post on this blog).  Third, the court held that AIG had failed to put in competent evidence that disclosure of the rate information would assist its competitors, and that an existing protective order would be sufficient to shield the information from public disclosure.  Overall, the court showed little patience with the insurance companies' bob-and-weave approach to disclosing critical information.

This decision is an important strike in the ongoing campaign by policyholder advocates to pull back the curtain on insurance company internal business practices that disadvantage insureds and allow insurers to profit.

Another Strong Ruling on Prejudgment Interest From Oregon's Federal Courts

Oregon's federal court has struck another blow against the insurance industry's attempts to limit prejudgment interest in duty-to-defend disputes.  Somewhat ironically, this ruling comes a case that has turned into a carrier v. carrier fight over contribution.

In the latest ruling in the long-running Northwest Pipe v. RLI coverage litigation, the court held that a non-defending carrier had to pay prejudgment interest to the defending carriers based on when the defense costs were paid, irrespective of when demand was made for reimbursement.  The non-defending carrier argued that it did not know, until demand was made on it, what the defense costs were.  The court rejected that argument, reasoning that if the carrier had not breached its contract and had agreed to defend, it would have been aware of the defense costs as they were being paid.

This new decision echoes Judge Hernandez' ruling in the Ash Grove litigation, which awarded prejudgment interest from when the policyholder paid the defense costs, without regard for when the insurance companies learned of the defense costs.

Washington Court Affirms Bad Faith Verdict In Excess of Stipulated Judgment

Clarifying Washington law, Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals has held that a jury is not limited in what it awards on a bad faith claim to the amount that the policyholder and the claimant had agreed to as the judgment in the underlying dispute.  The set up: in Miller v. Kenny a young driver crashed his car injuring himself and three passengers (the car actually belonged to one of the passengers).  Driver's insurer, Safeco, played games with policy limits and its evaluation of the case, putting the insured at risk of a significant judgment against him well in excess of policy limits.  The insured driver and one of the passengers agreed to a stipulated judgment against the insured that was over policy limits, with an assignment of the insured's claims against Safeco to the passenger, and a covenant that the passenger would not seek to enforce the judgment except to the extent of the passenger's rights against Safeco.  The parties followed Washington's procedures for a reasonableness hearing, and it appears that Safeco did not contest the reasonableness of the covenant judgment.  The judgment was for $4.15 million (exclusive of the policy limits, which Safeco paid).

But at the bad faith hearing the passenger, as assignee of  the policyholder's bad faith claim, put on evidence of damage to the driver caused by Safeco's bad faith that went well beyond the amount of the covenant judgment.  The jury ended up awarding the passenger/assignee $13 million, inclusive of the covenant judgment amount.  Post-trial the court added prejudgment interest, postjudgment interest, and attorney fees, and some of the damages award was trebled under the Consumer Protection Act. The final judgment was for $21,837,286.73.


On appeal, Safeco argued that under Besel v. Viking Ins. Co. of Wisc., 146 Wn.2d 730, 736, 49 P.3d 887 (2002), which held that the amount of a covenant judgment, when found to be reasonable, is the “presumptive measure of the insured's harm,” the jury cannot award more than the amount of the covenant judgment.  Not so, said the Court of Appeals in Miller; the covenant judgment is the presumptive floor to the insured's harm, but not a ceiling.  The Miller court went on to describe the different kinds of harm that the insured can suffer which may be provenin a bad faith action, above and beyond the covenant judgment amount:  damage to "credit rating, damage to reputation, loss of business opportunities, loss of control of the case..., loss of interest, attorney fees and costs, financial penalties for delayed payments, and emotional distress, anxiety, and fear."

Miller is an important milepost in Washington's evolving judicial recognition of the extraordinary power that liability insurers have over the lives of  their insureds, and the catastrophic harm that insurers can cause when they try to play things close to the vest in order to save themselves some money.  Miller may have the unfortunate effect of motivating carriers to contest reasonableness hearings, in order to get an early shot at reducing the net recovery on  a bad faith claim.  In the end, that will be a small price to pay for the benefits of this case (assuming that Miller is upheld by the Washington Supreme Court). 

Insured's Online Research Not Recoverable as Costs, Court Punts on Whether Recoverable as Fees

The Oregon Court of Appeals has once again confirmed that computerized legal research costs (Westlaw, Lexis, etc.) are not recoverable as costs under state law (in this case, the state law permitting recovery of costs on appeal), in a case arising out of a dispute over a homeowner's insurance policy.  The policyholder apparently argued that under the court's prior holdings awarding such research costs where a statute permits recovery of attorney fees.  Not so fast, noted the court: the policyholder didn't ask for research costs as fees, she asked for them as costs.  The court therefore declined to decide whether computerized legal research costs are recoverable as fees under ORS 742.061.  Although a small issue in the scheme of things, recovery of research costs in coverage cases is important because relatively few coverage issues have been addressed by the Oregon courts, requiring counsel to research out-of-state legal developments in order to render effective representation to policyholder clients.

Oregon Supreme Court Sets Limits on What Constitutes "Proof of Loss" For Attorney Fee Purposes

Today the Oregon Supreme Court held that a policyholder is not entitled to attorney fees under Oregon's fee-recovery statute for insurance coverage disputes (ORS 742.061) until the insured has given the insurance company information that at least suggests that coverage is requested under the policy  The case is Zimmerman v. Allstate.  The facts, briefly: Zimmerman was injured in an accident with a motorist who it turns out was underinsured (UIM), but she didn't seek UIM coverage from Allstate from the outset of her claim, because she didn't know the extend of her injuries and didn't know what the policy limits of the other motorist were.  So at the outset she only made a claim for personal injury (PIP) benefits under her Allstate policy.  Later, after retaining a lawyer, discovering that her injuries exceeded her PIP benefit, and discovery that the other motorist only had the minimum in coverage, she made a demand for UIM benefits.  Allstate paid, and she then sought her attorney fees all the way back to the time that she submitted her first claim.

Oregon's attorney fee statute allows recovery of attorney fees if the carrier does not settle the claim within six months of "proof of loss."  (For UIM claims, a carrier may avoid fee exposure by doing other things as well, but that is specific to UIM claims).  The Oregon courts have interpreted the phrase "proof of loss" very broadly, to encompass virtually any kind of notice provided by the insured about the loss.  However, in this case the Court did not award fees all the way back to the initial notice, because auto coverage comes in two parts (reduced to its essence): PIP coverage, and UIM coverage.  The Court reasoned that because the trigger of coverage between the two forms of benefit are so different, and the initial notice provided by Zimmerman did not contain information directed at the UIM trigger of coverage, attorney fees would only apply based on the timing of the notice from Zimmerman that UIM coverage was being sought.

The Court went to great lengths to emphasize that the general law applicable to "proof of loss" was not changed by the decision, which was driven by the type of coverage involved.  It is, however, a reminder that policyholder counsel should inform carriers as soon as possible of every type of coverage claim that may potentially be implicated by a loss.

Oregon Court of Appeals Confirms Holding on Attorney Block Billing

The Oregon Court of Appeals has issued a clarification of its prior decision in the long running ZRZ Realty ("Moody Avenue") environmental coverage litigation concerning attorney fees.  See link below.  The procedural aspects are of little concern other than to the litigants but it is worth noting that the court confirmed the prior decisions holding that block billing of attorney time did not necessarily render the fees unreasonable or unrecoverable. This holding has been helpful to policyholders trying to recover past defense costs from carriers that deny a defense and force the insured to litigate, something that is all too common because Oregon lacks bad faith legislation, a situation that the pending HB 3160 would help to rectify.   And as the Zidell folks pointed out in supporting that bill, if a bad faith claim had been available to them in the first place this whole multi year litigation might never have been necessary!

http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A121145c.pdf