Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company v. OZY MEDIA, INC.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided September 7, 2022·No. 5:21-cv-08764·Unknown

Opinion

CLEAR BLUE SPECIALTY INSURANCE Case No. 5:21-cv-08764-EJD COMPANY, ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS Plaintiff, OZY MEDIA, INC. AND CARLOS WATSON’S MOTION TO DISMISS v. OZY MEDIA, INC., et al., Re: Dkt. No. 24 Defendants.

Before the Court is Defendants Ozy Media, Inc. and Carlos Watson’s Motion to Dismiss (“MTD”) the Complaint. See Dkt. No. 24. The Court finds the motion appropriate for decision without oral argument pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-1(b). For the reasons described below, the Court DENIES the motion to dismiss. The current dispute arises from an insurance policy issued by Plaintiff Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company (“Clear Blue”) and fraudulent actions allegedly taken by the corporate officers, Defendants Watson and Rao (collectively the “Officers”), of Defendant Ozy Media, Inc. (“Ozy”) during a meeting with Goldman Sachs in 2021. On August 5, 2021, Ozy submitted an application for insurance to Clear Blue’s Managing General Agent, Embroker Insurance Services LLC (“Embroker”), seeking a Directors & Officers (“D&O”) Employment Practices Liability, and Fiduciary Liability policy to replace their expiring policy issued by QBE Insurance. See Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company’s Complaint for Case No.: 5:21-cv-08764-EJD Recission, Declaratory Relief, and Interpleader (“Complaint”), Dkt. No. 1 ¶ 24. In support of its application for insurance renewal, Ozy submitted a copy of the QBE insurance Renewal Application (the “Application”) dated August 3, 2021. Id. ¶ 25. It included a financial statement containing current and total assets, current and total liabilities, revenue, net income, and cash flow from operations. Id. ¶ 27. The Application requires that the applicant inform the insurer in writing of any material changes in the answers to the questions in the application before the policy inception date. Id. ¶ 28. Clear Blue contends that Ozy also submitted a “Management Liability Application” to Embroker acting as Clear Blue’s insurance agency (the “Embroker Application”). Id. ¶ 31. Clear Blue alleges that the 2020 total revenue and 2021 total revenue reported by Ozy materially differed from the investment amounts actually raised those years. Id. ¶¶ 33-35. Furthermore, Clear Blue alleges that Ozy answered “no” to application questions pertaining to whether Ozy or any person within the company has been involved in state or federal anti-trust litigation, has filed for bankruptcy (or anticipates initiating bankruptcy proceedings), or has been involved in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding alleging violation of any federal or state securities laws within the last three years. Id. ¶¶ 36-37. The Embroker Application provides that the policy will be voided in the event of any material misrepresentation or omission in the application or the submitted materials. Id. ¶ 39. Clear Blue asserts that it issued a quote for D&O insurance coverage to Ozy based on Ozy’s responses in the Renewal and Embroker Applications. Id. ¶ 39. It contains a proviso that it is subject to withdrawal or modification should Embroker or its representatives become aware of any “new, corrected or updated information.” Id. ¶ 41. Clear Blue subsequently issued a Policy effective from August 25, 2021 until August 25, 2022. Id. ¶ 42. The Policy provides a $1 million coverage limit for “A. Non-Indemnifiable Directors & Officers, Liability Coverage, B. Indemnifiable Directors & Officers Coverage, C. Entity Liability Coverage, subject to a $25,000 per claim retention under Coverages B and C.” Id. ¶ 44. Case No.: 5:21-cv-08764-EJD The Policy provides in part that Ozy “represent[s] and acknowledge[s] that the statements and information contained in the Application are true, accurate, and complete, and are the basis of this Policy and are to be considered incorporated into and constituting a part of this policy.” Id. ¶ 43. It also gives Clear Blue the right to rescind the policy where “the Application contains misrepresentations or omissions that materially affect the acceptance of the risk or the hazard assumed by [the insurer],” in which case the “Policy shall be void ab initio and shall not afford coverage for any Insured who knew on the inception date of this Policy the facts that were not truthfully disclosed in the Application.” Id. A little over a month after Clear Blue issued the Policy, on October 4, 2021, Defendant LifeLine Legacy Holdings, LLC (“LifeLine”) filed a complaint against Defendants Ozy and Samir Rao (Ozy’s Chief Operating Officer) alleging violations of federal securities laws, violation of the California Corporations Code, and fraud by concealment arising from a stock purchase agreement between LifeLine and Ozy. Id. ¶¶ 18, 45-46. LifeLine alleges that at the time of entering into the investment agreement, Ozy and Rao were aware of an unlawful incident whereby Rao fraudulently impersonated an executive of YouTube in a phone meeting with Goldman Sachs.1 Id. ¶ 46. The Complaint alleges that on February 2, 2021, Carlos Watson (Ozy’s Chief Executive Officer) and Rao, who held himself out as a YouTube executive, had a conference call with representatives of Goldman Sachs. Id. ¶¶ 17-18. During this meeting, Watson and Rao allegedly reported that Ozy has been successful on the YouTube platform in order to convince Goldman Sachs to financially invest in Ozy. Id. It is further alleged that Goldman Sachs discovered the ruse during the call and refused to proceed with its investment. Id. ¶ 46. Despite this incident, Ozy was able to obtain new investors such as LifeLine. Id. ¶ 21. Clear Blue believes that Ozy did not disclose its fraudulent meeting, or the resulting investigations into Ozy and its Officers, to its potential investors. Id. ¶ 22.

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Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company v. OZY MEDIA, INC., (N.D. Cal. 2022).

Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company v. OZY MEDIA, INC. (Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company v. OZY MEDIA, INC.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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