District No. 1-Pacific Coast District v. Travelers Casualty & Surety Co.

782 A.2d 269, 2001 D.C. App. LEXIS 207, 2001 WL 1135303
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 27, 2001
Docket00-CV-737
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 782 A.2d 269 (District No. 1-Pacific Coast District v. Travelers Casualty & Surety Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
District No. 1-Pacific Coast District v. Travelers Casualty & Surety Co., 782 A.2d 269, 2001 D.C. App. LEXIS 207, 2001 WL 1135303 (D.C. 2001).

Opinion

FARRELL, Associate Judge:

This appeal presents issues of interpretation of a fidelity bond and, more particularly, a settlement agreement by which the issuer of the bond, Aetna Casualty and Surety Company (“Aetna”), in return for *271 rights of subrogation and reimbursement, paid for certain losses suffered by the appellant labor Unions (hereafter collectively “MEBA”) at the hands of dishonest officers and employees. Upon suit by Aet-na’s successor in interest, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company (“Travelers”), to enforce its right to reimbursement, the Superior Court granted summary judgment to Travelers, though awarding it only part of the monies claimed. The primary issue on appeal is whether an “excess loss” provision incorporated into the settlement agreement operated to bar any reimbursement to Travelers until MEBA had recovered its entire losses from the wrongdoing in question, something it had not done at the time of judgment (and may never do). In the main, we affirm the judgment of the trial court, but vacate and remand for trial on one aspect of the reimbursement award.

I. Background

In April 1980, Aetna issued a bond (“fidelity bond” or “the bond”) to MEBA insuring it against “any loss of funds or other property which the Insured shall sustain ... through the failure of any of the Employees covered hereunder, acting alone or in collusion with others, to discharge faithfully his duties in handling funds or other property of the Insured.” The bond limits were $100,000 per employee, but excess coverage was provided for certain employees. 1 In June 1993, a federal grand jury charged MEBA employees DeFries, Dodson, Daulley, Schamann, Cul-lison, Masingo and others with racketeering, conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, mail fraud, and embezzlement. As later described by the District Court:

[t]he indictment charged that the defendants fraudulently procured their election and re-election to the Union offices that they held between 1985 and 1990; extorted allegiance to themselves and contributions to the Union’s political action fund from Union members while in office; and, in March, 1988, embezzled nearly $2 million in Union assets by making bogus “severance payments” to themselves on the occasion of a merger with another maritime union.

United States v. DeFries, 909 F.Supp. 13, 15 n. 1 (D.D.C.1995), rev’d on other grounds, 327 U.S.App.D.C. 181, 129 F.3d 1293 (1997).

In July 1993, MEBA filed a claim of loss with Aetna under the fidelity bond, asserting losses from both the embezzlement of severance pay and the salaries paid to the employees who had wrongfully won election and re-election. The claimed losses from the employees totalled $5,400,000. In July 1995, the defendants were convicted as charged, and the District Court subsequently listed the losses caused by several of them as follows:

DeFries: Salary — $1,590,164.00

Severance — 909,662.37

Total — $2,499,826.37

Dodson: Salary — $ 738,599.00

Severance — 394,187.00

Total — $1,132,786.00

Daulley: Salary 614,819.00

Severance 134,651.00

Total 749,470.00

*272 Cullison: Salary — $ 256,270.00

Severance — 0.00

Total — $ 256,270.00

DeFries, 909 F.Supp. 13 at 15 n. 2. A later amended proof of loss made the total claims for severance losses $1,438,500 and for salary losses $2,588,934.

Aetna disputed MEBA’s claims on several grounds, apparently including one that mere payment of salaries to a dishonestly-elected employee was not a covered loss under the fidelity bond. 2 In May 1996, the parties settled the dispute by a written agreement providing that Aetna would pay MEBA $1,028,838.37 and MEBA would release all claims of loss to Aetna. Paragraph 3 of the agreement provided:

AETNA and the Insured acknowledge and agree that AETNA has certain sub-rogation rights by reason of having made the aforesaid payment pursuant to the terms of the Bond. The Insured also agrees that, in return for the aforesaid payment, 'it assigns all rights, title and interest, except as limited in the next numbered paragraph, in all claims for the amount of the aforesaid payment which it may have against its officers, officials and employees and any other parties who acted in concert therewith by reason of conduct upon which its claims against AETNA have been made and pursuant to which AETNA makes the aforesaid payment.

These subrogation rights were in turn limited by paragraph 4, which stated:

a. Subject to the excess loss provisions set forth in the Bond, AETNA and'the Insured will share in the recovery of any monies not exceeding the amount of the aforesaid payment received either through the Court, from the United States Government, or directly from Messrs. C.E. DeFries, Clyde Dodson and Claude Daulley, with AETNA receiving 75% and the Insured receiving 25% of any monies so recovered until AETNA has received 75% of the aforesaid payment to the Insured.
b. It is expressly understood that the preceding sharing agreement does not apply to the first $409,662.37 of any recovery of monies from C.E. DeFries. Such amount will be the sole property of the Insured. If additional monies beyond the $409,662.37 are recovered from C.E. DeFries[,] ... the sharing agreement specified in the preceding paragraph ... will be applicable to such additional recovery.

MEBA later filed a civil restitution action to recover embezzled money from De-Fries and Dodson, reaching a settlement with them in which it received $403,036.95 from DeFries and $515,000 from Dodson. Following this settlement, MEBA advised Aetna of its recoveries and claimed that under paragraph 4(a) of the agreement— which specifically incorporated the “excess loss” provisions of the fidelity bond — it was entitled to keep all of the funds. Aet-na disagreed, asserting that it was entitled to 75% of the recovery. When the dispute could not be resolved, Aetna’s successor in interest, Travelers, brought suit in Superi- or Court claiming breach of the settlement agreement. During discovery, Travelers learned that MEBA had recovered monies from other wrongdoers as well. Specifically, in interrogatory responses MEBA disclosed that in December 1996 the District Court had ordered Cullison to pay restitution of $114,520.10, and that MEBA had earlier settled with Masingo and Scham- *273 ann for restitution of $310,759.48 and $358,399.71, respectively.

Following discovery, the parties both moved for summary judgment. MEBA relied on the excess loss provision of the fidelity bond, which provided:

If the Insured shall sustain any loss covered by this bond which exceeds the amount of indemnity provided by this bond, the Insured shall be entitled to all recoveries ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
782 A.2d 269, 2001 D.C. App. LEXIS 207, 2001 WL 1135303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/district-no-1-pacific-coast-district-v-travelers-casualty-surety-co-dc-2001.