Factory Mutual Insurance Company v. Federal Insurance Company

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Mexico
DecidedNovember 5, 2019
Docket1:17-cv-00760
StatusUnknown

This text of Factory Mutual Insurance Company v. Federal Insurance Company (Factory Mutual Insurance Company v. Federal Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Mexico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Factory Mutual Insurance Company v. Federal Insurance Company, (D.N.M. 2019).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO

FACTORY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY (as Assignee of ALBANY MOLECULAR RESEARCH, INC. and OSO BIOPHARMACEUTICALS MANUFACTURING, LLC),

Plaintiff,

v. Civ. No. 17-760 GJF/LF

FEDERAL INSURANCE COMPANY and DOES 1-10,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

THIS MATTER comes before the Court upon Defendant’s “Motion for Partial Summary” Judgment [ECF 64] (“Motion”). The Motion is fully briefed. See ECFs 81 (Plaintiff’s Response), 91 (Plaintiff’s Errata Notice), 101 (Defendant’s Reply). For the reasons articulated below, the Court will GRANT IN PART and DENY IN PART this Motion. I. BACKGROUND On July 31, 2014, a lightning storm occurred near a manufacturing plant of OSO Biopharmaceuticals Manufacturing, LLC (“OSO”) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ECF 50 at 11. At approximately 6:23 p.m. that evening, a lightning strike was recorded within 0.2 miles of this facility, which at the time was being used to manufacture an injectable antibiotic, Cubicin (daptomycin), for treating complicated infections. Id. at 12. Around this same time, the facility experienced a power interruption and doors leading from an interior “clean room” unexpectedly opened, while certain fans and other equipment shut down. See ECFs 47 at 3; 68 at 4; 71 at 8. Unacceptable levels of mold were later detected in this room, requiring OSO to discard the antibiotics that it was producing and cease further production until remediation efforts concluded in December 2014. See ECFs 47 at 5; 50 at 6; 68 at 3. As a result, OSO submitted a claim for over $10 million in losses to Defendant Federal Insurance Company. See ECF 50 at 5. Defendant paid OSO the maximum sublimit of $600,000 under two of its contract provisions. Id. OSO then submitted a claim to Plaintiff Factory Mutual

Insurance Company, which ultimately paid $7,385,110 to OSO for its losses. Id. at 6. Plaintiff, as an assignee of OSO, now seeks reimbursement from Defendant. Id. at 5. Plaintiff’s fundamental claim is that Defendant breached its insurance contract by not paying for the loss under its “Building and Personal Property for Life Sciences” (“BPPLS”) provision, which provided much higher limits of coverage. See ECF 64 at 2-3. In the instant Motion, Defendant seeks summary judgment on a sole issue. Mot. 1. Specifically, it argues that—if its BPPLS provision applies—the parties’ “other insurance” provisions would nevertheless “cancel each other out” and result in a respective 54 and 46 percent “apportionment of the loss” as between Defendant and Plaintiff. Id. at 1-2, 7.

II. PERTINENT FACTS A. Coverage Under the Policies Defendant’s policy caps coverage at $58,286,814 for an insured “Building,” $56,340,820 for “Personal Property” (e.g., pharmaceutical products), and $32,000,000 for any resulting “Business Income” loss (i.e., business interruption). ECF 47-2 (Defendant’s insurance policy) at 16-17, 19.1 Defendant’s BPPLS provision states that it will “pay for direct physical loss or damage

1 See also id. at 18-19 (Defendant’s policy including OSO’s buildings in Albuquerque); ECFs 50 at 8; 71 at 9 (no dispute that personal property includes the “pharmaceutical product”); ECF 47-2 at 75 (Defendant’s policy discussing coverage for the interruption, or “impairment,” of the insured’s business); ECF 75 at 4 (Defendant characterizing its potential liability for business income loss as “any resulting business interruption loss” that stems from a loss to the insured’s “building or personal property” (emphasis added)). to: building; or personal property, that is caused by or resulting from a peril not otherwise excluded.” Id. at 92; see also id. at 75 (separate provision requiring Defendant to pay for resulting business interruption losses). Defendant’s policy, however, generally excludes losses resulting from “contaminants” (e.g., mold), unless an exception applies: This insurance does not apply to loss or damage caused by or resulting from the mixture of or contact between property and a contaminant . . . . [unless] the mixture or contact is directly caused by or directly results from a specified peril [e.g., lightning] . . .

Id. at 104. For its part, Plaintiff’s policy provides coverage, pursuant to its “Automatic Coverage” provision, up to $50,000,000 for “insured physical loss or damage to insured property at any location” that occurs within 90 days of the property’s acquisition. ECF 64-2 (Plaintiff’s insurance policy) at 18, 36.2 This coverage protects against “all [non-excluded] risks of physical loss” and applies to “Real Property,” “Personal Property,” and “time element loss[es]” (i.e., business interruption). Id. at 14, 26, 54-59.3 Plaintiff’s policy likewise excludes contamination, while also providing an exception to this exclusion—one that implicitly incorporates damage caused by lightning: This Policy excludes . . . contamination, and any cost due to contamination . . . . If contamination due only to the actual not suspected presence of contaminant(s) directly results from other physical damage not excluded by this Policy [e.g., lightning], then only physical damage caused by such contamination may be insured . . . .

Id. at 31.

2 Plaintiff’s contract was with Albany Molecular Research, Inc., which acquired OSO on July 1, 2014—only 30 days before the lightning strike occurred. See ECF 50 at 15.

3 See also ECF 101-2 at 3 (Plaintiff’s May 10, 2016 letter to the insured, concluding that Plaintiff was liable for “direct physical loss and damage to the [insured’s] real and personal property and resultant business interruption” (emphasis added)). B. “Other Insurance” Provisions Each party’s policy has an “other insurance” provision—a provision that assigns primary liability to the “other” insurer. Defendant’s “other insurance” provision states the following: If you have any other insurance covering the same loss or damage as is insured against by this policy, we will only pay for the amount of loss or damage which is insured against by this policy in excess of the amount due from such other insurance, whether you can collect on such other insurance or not.

ECF 47-2 at 170. And Plaintiff’s “other insurance” provision states the following: A. If there is any other insurance that would apply in the absence of this Policy, this Policy will apply only after such insurance whether collectible or not.

B. In no event will this Policy apply as contributing insurance.

ECF 64-2 at 84. III. ISSUES Assuming—for purposes of this Motion only—that Defendant is liable under its BPPLS provision, this Court will determine whether there is “no genuine dispute as to any material fact and [Defendant] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a), on four specific issues raised by Defendant’s Motion: (1) whether Plaintiff would also be liable under its Automatic Coverage provision;

(2) whether the parties’ “other insurance” clauses are “mutually repugnant”—i.e., whether, if applied simultaneously, they would “leave the insured with no coverage,” CC Housing Corp. v. Ryder Truck Rental, Inc., 746 P.2d 1109, 1112-13 (N.M. 1987);

(3) whether the parties’ policies cover “the same risk,” Maryland Cas. Co. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 419 P.2d 229, 233-34 (N.M. 1966); and

(4) whether a “proration of the loss,” CC Housing Corp., 746 P.2d at 1113, would require Defendant and Plaintiff respectively to be responsible for 54 and 46 percent of the loss.

See Mot. 2, 5-8; Resp. 2-7; Reply 6-9. IV. APPLICABLE LAW A.

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Factory Mutual Insurance Company v. Federal Insurance Company, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/factory-mutual-insurance-company-v-federal-insurance-company-nmd-2019.