First Mercury Insurance Co. v. Shawmut Woodworking & Supply, Inc.

660 F. App'x 30
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2016
Docket15-1255-cv(L); 15-1510-cv(Con)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 660 F. App'x 30 (First Mercury Insurance Co. v. Shawmut Woodworking & Supply, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Mercury Insurance Co. v. Shawmut Woodworking & Supply, Inc., 660 F. App'x 30 (2d Cir. 2016).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff-counter-defendant-appellant First Mercury. Insurance Company (“First Mercury”) and counter-defendant-appellant National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsbúrgh, Pennsylvania (“National Union”) appeal an April 6, 2015 judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, declaring that First Mercury has a duty to defend Connecticut state court actions brought against Shawmut Woodworking & Supply, Inc. (“Shawmut”) and its subcontractor, Shepard Steel Company (“Shepard”).1 We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and issues on appeal.

Fast Trek Steel, Inc. (“Fast Trek”) was a subcontractor under Shepard and hence a sub-subcontractor under Shawmut for a construction project at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Plaintiffs in state court actions are Fast Trek employees who sued Shawmut and Shepard for injuries and a death that occurred when steel beams collapsed at the site. Plaintiffs in those actions named as defendants Shawmut and Shepard, but not Fast Trek.

At the time of the incident, a general commercial liability insurance policy issued by First Mercury (the “Policy”) covered Fast Trek. The Policy provided:

A. Section II—Who Is An Insured is amended to include as an additional insured any person or organization for whom you are performing operations when you and such person or organization have agreed in writing in a contract or agreement that such person or organization be added as an additional insured on your policy. Such person or organization is an additional insured only with respect to liability for “bodily injury”, “property damage” or “personal and advertising injury” caused, in whole or in part, by:
1. Your acts or omissions; or
2. The acts or omissions of those acting on your behalf;
in the performance of your ongoing operations for the additional insured.

App. 27. An agreement between Shepard and Fast Trek required Fast Trek to purchase insurance coverage that “must name Shepard as additional insured and must also name the Project owner and construction manager as additional insureds.” Id. at 117.

The agreement also provided that Fast Trek “shall assume .towards Shepard all obligations and responsibilities that Shepard assumes contractually towards General Contractor” and incorporated as “part of the Subcontract Documents” the agreement between Shawmut and Shepard. Id. at 116-17. The agreement between Shaw-mut and Shepard required Shepard to pur[33]*33chase insurance naming Shawmut as an additional insured and to “require each sub-subcontractor ... to be bound by all Contract Documents to the same extent and with the same effect as if the subcontractor ... were [Shepard].” Id. at 103, 107.

On July 27, 2012, First Mercury filed this lawsuit in the district court below seeking a declaration that it did not have a duty to defend or indemnify Shawmut or Shepard against claims in two of the state court actions. On September 23, 2014, the district court denied First Mercury’s motion for summary judgment because there were factual disputes as to the duty to indemnify that could not be resolved until the state court claims were adjudicated. Further, it granted summary judgment to Shawmut and Shepard, concluding that they were additional insureds under the Policy and that the Policy obligated First Mercury to defend the two state court actions.2

On April 6, 2015, the district court granted First Mercury’s unopposed motion for entry of a final judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), concluding that judicial economy and equity favored entry of a final judgment on the duty to defend issue because a ruling by this Court in favor of First Mercury would moot the entire case. Accordingly, final judgment was entered and this appeal followed.

On appeal, (1) First Mercury and National Union argue that Shawmut is not an additional insured under the Policy, and (2) First Mercury argues that the Policy covers only vicarious liability claims against Shawmut and Shepard, and that those claims were not sufficiently alleged in the state court actions.

We review de novo the district court’s summary judgment ruling, “construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and drawing all reasonable inferences in [its] favor.” Mihalik v. Credit Agricole Cheuvreux N. Am., Inc., 715 F.3d 102, 108 (2d Cir. 2013). A movant is entitled to summary judgment if “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). “Because interpretation of an insurance agreement is a question of law, we review the district court’s construction of the [Policy] de novo.” U.S. Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Fendi Adele S.R.L., 823 F.3d 146, 149 (2d Cir. 2016) (quoting VAM Check Cashing Corp. v. Fed. Ins. Co., 699 F.3d 727, 729 (2d Cir. 2012)). In this case, we interpret the Policy under Connecticut law.

Connecticut courts interpret an insurance policy “by the same general rules that govern the construction of any written contract,” “look[ing] at the contract as a whole, considering] all relevant portions together and, if possible, giving] operative effect to every provision in order to reach a reasonable overall result.” Lexington Ins. Co. v. Lexington Healthcare Grp., Inc., 311 Conn. 29, 37-38, 84 A.3d 1167 (2014) (quoting Johnson v. Conn. Ins. Guar. Ass’n, 302 Conn. 639, 643, 31 A.3d 1004 (2011)). If an insurance policy is “ambiguous”—that is, “reasonably susceptible to more than one reading”—“any ambiguity in the terms of [the] insurance policy must be construed in favor of the insured because the insurance company drafted the policy.” Johnson, 302 Conn. at 643, 31 A.3d 1004 (quoting Conn. Med. Ins. Co. v. Kulikowski, 286 Conn. 1, 6, 942 A.2d 334 (2008)).

[34]*34First, First Mercury and National Union contend that Shawmut does not qualify as an additional insured under the Policy because the Policy requires that Shawmut and Fast Trek “have agreed in writing in a contract or agreement that [Shawmut] be added as an additional insured on [the] [P]olicy,” App. 27. This requirement, however, was met. In its written agreement with Shepard, Fast Trek agreed to name as an additional insured not only Shepard, but also “the Project owner and construction manager.” Id. 117. Shawmut was the construction manager. Moreover, Fast Trek’s agreement with Shepard incorporated “as part of the Subcontract Documents” the agreement between Shawmut and Shepard, which included a requirement that Shepard and “each sub-subcontract” name Shawmut as an additional insured. Id. 103, 107. Hence, Shawmut and Fast Trek clearly “agreed in writing in a contract or agreement” to include Shawmut as an additional insured.

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660 F. App'x 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-mercury-insurance-co-v-shawmut-woodworking-supply-inc-ca2-2016.