Jones v. Liberty Mutual Insurance

385 F.3d 820, 2004 WL 2239266
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedOctober 6, 2004
DocketNos. 02-2389, 02-2427
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 385 F.3d 820 (Jones v. Liberty Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. Liberty Mutual Insurance, 385 F.3d 820, 2004 WL 2239266 (4th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WIDENER wrote the opinion, in which Judge DUNCAN and Senior Judge • MICHAEL concurred.

WIDENER, Circuit Judge:

This appeal concerns insurers’ liability for asbestos-related bodily injuries. The intervenors appeal from the district court’s decision adopting what is called the pro-rata rule of Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Utica Mutual Insurance Co., 145 Md.App. 256, 802 A.2d 1070 (2002), and holding that the intervenors’ claims are subject to an aggregate limit by reason of the “completed operations” provisions of the insurance policies. We affirm.

I.

The intervenors in this case are four former employees or personal representatives of former employees of the Bethlehem Steel plant located in Baltimore, Maryland. The intervenors claim that they were injured by asbestos that was installed by Wallace & Gale Company. Wallace & Gale was an insulation contractor that installed asbestos-containing products for different businesses including Bethlehem Steel. In the early 1970’s, Wallace & Gale halted its usé of asbestos-containing products due to safety and health concerns. Wallace & Gale filed for bankruptcy in 1984, and numerous claimants, including the intervenors, have filed proofs of claim [824]*824against Wallace & Gale for asbestos-related injuries.

During the time it installed asbestos-containing products, Wallace & Gale purchased comprehensive general liability insurance policies and excess liability insurance policies from the following insurers, Aetna Casualty & Surety Company, now known as Travelers Casualty & Surety Company (Travelers); Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company (Hartford); St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (StPaul); Granite State Insurance Company (Granite); Continental Casualty Company (Continental); Riunione Adriatica Di Sicurta (Riunione); and New Hampshire Insurance Company (New Hampshire).1 (JA 1445, 1541-1547, 1549, 1560, 1577, 1592, 1607, 1622, 1637, 1652, 1682, 1717, 1750, 1787, 1841, 1878, 1894, 1921-1924, 191-1982, 2001-2002, 2007, 2033, 2095, 2111, 2145-2146, 2245-2547, 2549, 2574, 2606, 2619, 3325-3327) Under the plan adopted by the bankruptcy court, the proceeds from the insurance policies will be used to fund a trust to handle asbestos injury claims filed against Wallace & Gale. The amount that the insurers will be required to contribute to the trust depends [825]*825on the interpretation of the insurance contracts and the outcome of this litigation.

II.

In 1994, Travelers filed a declaratory judgment action, by way of an adversary proceeding within the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy case of Wallace & Gale against Wallace & Gale, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, and Wallace & Gale’s other insurers. Travelers sought a judicial determination of the applicability and extent of coverage of insurance policies issued by Wallace & Gale’s insurers. Through this action, Travelers sought to determine the extent of its liability, and the liability of other Wallace & Gale insurers, in a lawsuit brought against Wallace.& Gale by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

In March of 1995, the intervenors moved to intervene in the declaratory judgment action. The district court granted the motion. Before disposition of the claims of the intervenors, the claims brought by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore settled. The intervenors’ first amended complaint of December 29, 1999, raised two issues that are the subject of this appeal. In them first amended complaint, the plaintiffs raised the first issue by seeking a declaration

[t]hat each Policy triggered has an obligation to defend and indemnify Wallace & Gale for the full value of each individual claimant’s damages subject only to the “per person” and “per occurrence” limits of those policies.

By seeking this declaration, the interve-nors contended that the insurers are liable for “all sums” that are payable on asbestos claims for which Wallace &, Gale is liable. Second, the intervenors asserted that their claims are not subject to the aggregate limit of the policies under the “general liability, negligence or other claims” provisions in the policies. We may refer to these two issues as the all sums or allocation issue and the completed operations issue in this opinion.

In response, the Wallace & Gale insurers argued that they are only liable under the comprehensive general liability insurance policies to pay for bodily injury that occurs during the policy period. Under this “pro rata” argument, the Wallace & Gale insurers would be liable only for a pro rata portion of the bodily injury that occurred during the time each insurer’s policy was in place. For any bodily injury occurring during a time when the insured was self-insured or when the insured’s policy contained, for example, an exclusion for the type of injury suffered by the interve-nors, the insured would bear the risk of liability. On the completed operations issue, the Wallace & Gale insurers asserted that any injuries that occurred after Wallace & Gale completed its installation work with asbestos were subject to the aggregate limits of the policies under the completed operations hazard clauses in the policies.

In March of 2001, the intervenors filed a motion for summary judgment, and the Wallace & Gale insurers countered with a cross motion for summary judgment in April of 2001. The district court held a hearing on the motions for summary judgment on June 11, 2001. By their summary judgment motions, the parties sought a judicial determination of whether, as a matter of law, the Wallace & Gale insurers’ exposure to the claims of the interve-nors. was limited by either the pro rata allocation of liability or the aggregate limits of liability triggered by the completed operations clauses in the insurance contracts. The district court took the motions under advisement at the conclusion of the hearing.'

[826]*826In February of 2002, the district court issued its opinion on the motions for summary judgment. See Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co. v. Wallace & Gale Co. (In re Wallace & Gale Co.), 275 B.R. 223 (D.Md.2002). The district court noted that Maryland had “yet to speak definitively to the question” of allocation and, accepting for argument that, in its opinion, both the Wallace & Gale insurers and the plaintiffs presented “reasonable readings to the language of the policies,” determined that the “tie” must go in favor of the insured, meaning the intervenors. The district court held

that if a claimant was initially exposed to asbestos while Wallace & Gale was on the job, the insurer whose policy was in place at that time and each insurer thereafter will be obliged to pay “all sums” Wallace & Gale becomes legally obligated to pay that claimant as damages. Consequently, there will be no pro rata allocation nor any allocation to Wallace & Gale for any period of the progressive damage during which it may have lacked insurance.

275 B.R. 223, 236.

Turning to the completed operations issue, the district court agreed with the Wallace & Gale insurers that the claims of Bethlehem steel workers who were exposed initially to asbestos after Wallace &

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Related

In Re: The Wallace & Gale Company, Debtor. Roy E. Jones Andrew R. Youngbar Louise Holcomb, Personal Representative of the Estate of Cossie Holcomb Robert M. Barber, Personal Representative of the Estate of Milton Barber, Intervenors-Plaintiffs-Appellants v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Hartford Insurance Company Continental Casualty Company Adriatic Insurance Company St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company Granite State Insurance Company New Hampshire Insurance Company Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, and the Wallace & Gale Company Mayor of Baltimore City Council of Baltimore City American Employers Insurance Company International Insurance Company, the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, Intervenor-Defendant. Porter Hayden Company Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Porter Hayden Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Acands, Incorporated Acands, Incorporated Jt Thorpe Company Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust, Amici Supporting Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association the American Insurance Association Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London, Amici Supporting in Re: The Wallace & Gale Company, Debtor. Roy E. Jones Andrew R. Youngbar Louise Holcomb, Personal Representative of the Estate of Cossie Holcomb Robert M. Barber, Personal Representative of the Estate of Milton Barber, Intervenors-Plaintiffs v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Company v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, and the Wallace & Gale Company Mayor of Baltimore City Council of Baltimore City Hartford Insurance Company Cna-Continental Casualty Company Adriatic Insurance Company St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company American Employers Insurance Company International Insurance Company Granite State Insurance Company New Hampshire Insurance Company, the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, Intervenor-Defendant
385 F.3d 820 (Fourth Circuit, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
385 F.3d 820, 2004 WL 2239266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-liberty-mutual-insurance-ca4-2004.