FileNet Corp. v. Chubb Corp.

735 A.2d 1203, 324 N.J. Super. 476, 1997 N.J. Super. LEXIS 583
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedDecember 19, 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 735 A.2d 1203 (FileNet Corp. v. Chubb Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FileNet Corp. v. Chubb Corp., 735 A.2d 1203, 324 N.J. Super. 476, 1997 N.J. Super. LEXIS 583 (N.J. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

735 A.2d 1203 (1997)
324 N.J. Super. 476

FILENET CORP., Plaintiff,
v.
CHUBB CORP. et al., Defendant.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Somerset County.

Decided December 19, 1997.

*1205 Earl M. Bennett, Herold & Haines, Princeton, for Plaintiff.

Marilyn Silvia, Hill Wallack, Princeton, for Defendant.

*1204 HELEN E. HOENS, J.S.C.

Before the Court are the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment. For the reasons which follow, the plaintiff's motion is denied and the defendants' motion is granted. This matter is a declaratory judgment action in which plaintiff FileNet seeks a declaration that defendant insurers Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Vigilant Insurance Company, Federal Insurance Company and Pacific Indemnity Company (collectively "defendants") owe it a duty to defend it and ultimately to indemnify it for any losses plaintiff may sustain in an action against it by Wang Laboratories, now pending in Federal Court in Boston. Secondarily, plaintiff seeks damages from defendants based upon a theory of bad faith arising from defendants' denial of any obligation to provide a defense or to indemnify FileNet. As many of the issues raised in these motions are previously unaddressed in New Jersey, an explanation of the underlying litigation and the coverages pursuant to which defense and indemnification are sought is required.

The Wang litigation is based upon a six count complaint in which Wang alleges that FileNet, with respect to six specified Wang patents:

"has without authority made, sold, or used, and continues to make, sell, or use, products that infringe or contributorily infringe the ... patent, or has actively induced and continues to actively induce infringement of the ... patent."

In this action, FileNet seeks coverage from defendants pursuant to both primary Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) policies and excess policies issued for various time frames for the period April 11, 1985 through April 11, 1992. In general, each of these policies includes coverage for "advertising injury" and for "personal injury" but the definitions of these terms vary somewhat from one policy to another.

The primary CGL policies in effect from April 11, 1985 through April 11, 1987 defined "advertising injury" and "personal injury" in relevant part only as follows:

ADVERTISING INJURY

means injury arising out of one or more of the following offenses committed during the policy period occurring in the course of your advertising activities:

1. libel, slander, defamation, violation of right of privacy; or

2. infringement of copyright, title, slogan, trademark, service mark or trade name; or

3. unfair competition or piracy.

PERSONAL INJURY

means injury arising out of one or more of the following offenses committed during the policy period ...

4. publication or utterance of a libel, slander or other defamatory or disparaging material; ...

The primary CGL policies issued to FileNet from April, 1987 through April, 1992 contained the following modified definitions:

means injury arising solely out of one or more of the following offenses committed *1206 in the course of advertising your goods, products or services:

1. oral or written publication of material that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages a person's or organization's goods, products or services;

2. misappropriation of advertising ideas or style of doing business; or

...

4. infringement of copyrighted advertising materials, titles or slogans.

means injury, other than bodily injury, arising out of one or more of the following offenses committed in the course of your business, other than your advertising activities ...

4. oral or written publication of material that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages a person's or organization's goods, products or services ...

Effective August 26, 1992, Endorsement No. 7 to the primary CGL policies deleted the above underlined language from the relevant definitions and changed the definition of "advertising" to include "any paid advertisement, public article, broadcast or telecast". The excess/umbrella policies issued throughout these various time periods define "advertising injury" and "personal injury" without any material differences from the definitions found in the underlying primary policies as quoted here.

Among the disputes raised and addressed by the parties in their voluminous briefs and appendices are (1) choice of law; (2) competency of extrinsic evidence; (3) principles governing the duty to defend analysis in general; (4) interpretation of virtually every term in the policy language defining advertising injuries, personal injuries and the phrase "arising out of" in the context of the indemnity dispute. We address each of these issues in turn.

1. Choice of Law

Defendants urge the Court to apply the law of California to the issues in dispute, contending that FileNet is headquartered there and that the policies were issued, procured and paid for there through California brokers and FileNet personnel. Plaintiff argues that the law of New Jersey should apply, arguing that defendants are actually New Jersey based companies which underwrite and issue their policies here and which have declined to cover these claims by so deciding here in New Jersey. Each side contests the accuracy of some or all of the facts relating to the conflicts analysis on which the other party relies.

The first step in any conflict of laws analysis is to determine whether any conflict exists between the applicable laws of the interested states. Veazey v. Doremus, 103 N.J. 244, 248, 510 A.2d 1187 (1986). In undertaking this analysis, questions of conflicts are determined on an issue-by-issue basis. Id. If, after comparing the relevant law, it is determined that an actual conflict exists, the next step is to identify the governmental policies underlying the law of each state and to evaluate how those policies are affected by each state's contacts to the litigation and to the parties.

When resolving conflicts-of-law issues in the liability insurance context, New Jersey has rejected the traditional lex loci contractus or place where the contract was entered into rule and instead has adopted the more flexible governmental interest analysis, which focuses on a determination about which state has the most significant connections with the litigation and the parties. Gilbert Spruance v. Pennsylvania Mfrs., 134 N.J. 96, 102, 629 A.2d 885 (1993), citing State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Estate of Simmons, 84 N.J. 28, 417 A.2d 488 (1980). In this regard, our Supreme Court held in State Farm that because the law of the place of the contract "generally comports with the reasonable expectations of the parties concerning the principal situs of the insured *1207 risk", that forum's law should apply unless the dominant and significant relationship of another state to the parties and to the underlying issue dictates that this basic rule should yield. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Estate of Simmons, supra, 84 N.J. at 37, 417 A.2d 488. However, the Court, in refining the governmental interest analysis in that opinion, directed trial courts to rely on an evaluation of the factors and contacts described in the

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Bluebook (online)
735 A.2d 1203, 324 N.J. Super. 476, 1997 N.J. Super. LEXIS 583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/filenet-corp-v-chubb-corp-njsuperctappdiv-1997.