LCS Corrections Services, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance

800 F.3d 664, 2015 WL 5155056
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 2, 2015
Docket14-40494, 14-40587
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 800 F.3d 664 (LCS Corrections Services, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LCS Corrections Services, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance, 800 F.3d 664, 2015 WL 5155056 (5th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

This insurance dispute requires us to decide whether Lexington Insurance Company must defend and indemnify LCS Corrections Services, Inc., agaipst a claim that LCS’s alleged failure to provide medications to an inmate housed at one of its facilities caused the inmate’s death. Two insurance contracts are at issue in this appeal: a Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) policy and a Commercial Umbrella Liability (“CUL”) policy. The district court, in separate rulings, held that, under the CGL policy, Lexington had a duty to defend LCS, but without reaching the indemnification issue under that policy; and that, under the CUL policy, Lexington had no duty to defend or indemnify LCS. For the reasons that will follow, we vacate the district court’s judgment in part and hold that Lexington is not required to defend or *667 indemnify LCS under the CGL policy, and affirm the district court’s judgment in part and hold that Lexington is not required to defend or indemnify LCS under the CUL policy. Thus, we AFFIRM in part, VACATE in part, and REMAND the case for entry of judgment in favor of Lexington.

I.

This dispute over the insurance policies stems from a tort action by the heirs (the “Plaintiffs”) of Mario Garcia (“Garcia”). 1 Garcia was confined at the Brooks County Detention Center (the “Detention Center”) in Falfurrias, Texas, after’pleading guilty to a federal offense. LCS, a Louisiana corporation, owns a number of private prison facilities, and operates the Detention Center. At the time Garcia was incarcerated, he was taking high doses of benzodiazepine, as prescribed by his personal physician. The Plaintiffs claim that Garcia died because officials at the Detention Center refused to provide him with additional doses of benzodiazepine.

After Garcia’s death, the Plaintiffs filed suit against LCS, alleging claims of medical malpractice under state law and constitutional violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Initially, in the previous tort litigation that underlies this appeal, the district court allowed only the medical malpractice claims to go to trial. In that trial, a jury returned a $2.25 million verdict in favor of the Plaintiffs. 2 Following that trial, the district court agreed to reinstate the Plaintiffs’ § 1983 claim. In response to the district court’s ruling, the Plaintiffs filed their Fifth Amended Complaint (the “Complaint”), which alleges that LCS’s policy of refusing to administer certain medications to inmates constituted deliberate indifference to Garcia’s serious medical needs.

LCS then filed this separate action in another district court, seeking a declaration that Lexington is required to defend and indemnify LCS in the underlying § 1983 action. Thus, this declaratory judgment appeal involves only the question of insurance coverage and only for the § 1983 claim. This appeal, however, implicates two insurance policies.

By way of background, Lexington issued three policies to LCS — the CUL and CGL policies that are at issue in this suit, along with a Healthcare Professional Liability (“HPL”) policy, which is not a subject of this appeal. 3 Both the CUL and CGL policies insure LCS against “bodily injury” or “property damage” caused by an “occurrence,” defined as “an accident, including continuous' or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.” Additionally, the CGL policy, but not the CUL policy, includes a civil rights endorsement, which extends the insurance agreement to cover certain civil rights claims.

More particularly, this appeal primarily involves two exclusions, one from each policy: a “medical services” exclusion to the CGL policy, and a “professional liability” exclusion to the CUL policy. Common to *668 each policy, LCS and the Plaintiffs contend that the Complaint alleges that the injury Garcia suffered resulted from covered administrative or non-professional services; whereas Lexington counters that the alleged injury occurred because LCS denied Garcia his medication, constituting a failure of LCS to render a medical or professional service, which is excluded from coverage in the respective policies. Both LCS and Lexington moved for summary judgment. The district court ruled for the Plaintiffs and LCS on the CGL policy, and ruled for Lexington on the CUL policy.

II.

. [1-3] So, we turn to the merits of this declaratory judgment appeal, seeking an answer only to insurance coverage for the underlying § 1983 claim: whether Lexington owes a duty to defend and/or indemnify LCS, under either the CGL or the CUL policies. 4 Under both Texas and Louisiana law, the duty to defend and the duty to indemnify are separate duties, determined by differing principles. Weeks Marine, Inc. v. Standard Concrete Prods., Inc., 737 F.3d 365, 369 (5th Cir.2013) (recognizing that the duty to indemnify and the duty to defend are distinct duties under Texas law); see also Cambridge Integrated Servs. Grp., Inc. v. Concentra Integrated Servs., Inc., 697 F.3d 248, 254 (5th Cir. 2012) (making the same distinction under Louisiana law). 5 To determine whether an insurer owes a duty to defend, we apply the so-called “eight corners rule,” meaning that we decide the issue based solely on the terms of the insurance policy and the allegations in the pleadings. Nat’l Cas. Co. v. W. World Ins. Co., 669 F.3d 608, 612 (5th Cir.2012); see also Yount v. Maisano, 627 So.2d 148, 153 (La.1993). Conversely, we generally evaluate the insurer’s duty to indemnify after the parties have developed the actual facts that establish liability in the underlying lawsuit. Columbia Cas. Co. v. Ga. & Fla. RailNet, Inc., 542 F.3d 106, 110-11 (5th Cir.2008). Lexington *669 here raises an exception, in which a reviewing court may decide the insurer’s duty to indemnify before the conclusion of the underlying litigation if “the insurer has no duty to defend and the same reasons that negate the duty to defend likewise negate any possibility the insurer will ever have a duty to indemnify.” Farmers Tex. Cty. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Griffin, 955 S.W.2d 81, 84 (Tex.1997) (per curiam) (emphasis omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
800 F.3d 664, 2015 WL 5155056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lcs-corrections-services-inc-v-lexington-insurance-ca5-2015.