The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division. Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.
SUMMARY March 19, 2026
2026COA16
No. 23CA1886, Michel L. Schlup Revocable Trust v. Attorneys Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. — Insurance — Title Insurance — Complete Defense Rule
To resolve this appeal, a division of the court of appeals must
consider, as a matter of first impression, whether the complete
defense rule — a rule that requires an insurer to provide a defense
for the insured on all claims if any claim is arguably covered by the
policy — applies in the title insurance context. Because the division
concludes that it doesn’t and agrees with the district court that the
insurance company defendant properly denied coverage for the
insured plaintiff, the division affirms the district court’s grant of
summary judgment in favor of the insurance company. COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2026COA16
Court of Appeals No. 23CA1886 City and County of Denver District Court No. 22CV33691 Honorable Martin F. Egelhoff, Judge
Michel L. Schlup Revocable Trust,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Attorneys Title Guaranty Fund, Inc.,
Defendant-Appellee.
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED
Division VI Opinion by JUDGE WELLING Brown and Moultrie, JJ., concur
Announced March 19, 2026
RICE LLC, T.R. Rice, Elizabeth, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellant
Karsh Gabler Call PC, Ivan M. Call, Lakewood, Colorado, for Defendant- Appellee ¶1 In this insurance coverage dispute, plaintiff, the Michel L.
Schlup Revocable Trust (the Trust), appeals the district court’s
grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant, Attorney Title
Guaranty Fund, Inc. (ATGF). Although ATGF provided the Trust
with a defense and indemnification against claims asserted by one
of the Trust’s neighbors, it refused to provide either a defense or
indemnification with respect to claims brought in the same
litigation by a different neighbor, asserting that those claims weren’t
covered by the title insurance policy. After resolving both sets of
claims, the Trust sued ATGF for its failure to provide a defense to
the latter set of claims brought by the second neighbor.
¶2 The district court granted summary judgment in favor of
ATGF, concluding that ATGF didn’t have a duty to defend the Trust
against the claims asserted by the second neighbor either under the
terms of the policy or pursuant to the complete defense rule, which
requires an insurance company to provide a defense to all of the
claims asserted in a piece of litigation if any one of the claims is
arguably covered by the policy. On appeal, the Trust argues that
the district court erred in both respects.
1 ¶3 To resolve this appeal, we must consider, as a matter of first
impression, whether the complete defense rule applies in the title
insurance context. Because we conclude that it doesn’t and
because we agree with the district court that coverage was properly
denied, we affirm.
I. Background
¶4 The district court relied on the following undisputed facts in
its order granting summary judgment. In 2018, the Trust
purchased an undeveloped parcel of land in Estes Park, Colorado
(the Property). An unimproved private road (Homestead Lane),
which crossed multiple adjacent properties, was the only access
between the Property and nearby State Highway 34.
¶5 As part of the transaction, the Trust purchased a title
insurance policy from ATGF. Covered Risk 4 of the title insurance
policy covered loss or damage to the Trust as a result of “no right of
access to and from the [Property].”
¶6 After closing, the Trust began to construct a residence on the
Property, which required it to improve the portion of Homestead
Lane leading to the Property. In the process, the local fire
protection district determined that, if any portion of Homestead
2 Lane was improved, the entirety of Homestead Lane would have to
be paved to bring it into compliance with the Estes Valley Fire
Protection District’s fire code.
¶7 In 2021, the Trust began paving Homestead Lane. Later that
year, Nicholas Stark, the owner of a nearby parcel that Homestead
Lane traversed, sued the Trust, claiming that the Trust had no legal
right of access to the Property across his property. The Trust
submitted Stark’s claims to ATGF, and ATGF retained an attorney
who successfully defended the Trust against Stark’s claims.
¶8 In early 2022, Michael Nassimbene, the owner of a second
parcel adjacent to the Property that included a portion of
Homestead Lane, intervened in the Stark lawsuit. Nassimbene
asserted two causes of action against the Trust — trespass and
unjust enrichment. Both claims were based on the Trust’s paving
the portion of Homestead Lane running across Nassimbene’s
property without Nassimbene’s consent.
¶9 Material to this appeal, Nassimbene didn’t dispute that the
Trust had an easement across his property via Homestead Lane to
access the Property; Nassimbene did, however, dispute the Trust’s
right to improve that easement over his objection. In his complaint,
3 Nassimbene contended that the Trust was trespassing by paving,
without his consent, the portion of Homestead Lane that crossed
his property. He also averred that the Trust had unjustly enriched
itself by increasing Nassimbene’s cost of maintaining Homestead
Lane under a shared maintenance agreement without committing to
cover that cost increase.
¶ 10 The Trust submitted Nassimbene’s claims to ATGF for defense
and indemnification. ATGF declined to defend, asserting that the
claims weren’t within the scope of coverage and, even if they were,
they were subject to exclusions contained in the policy. Because of
ATGF’s denial, the Trust hired its own counsel to defend against
Nassimbene’s claims. The Trust eventually settled with
Nassimbene.
¶ 11 After settling with Nassimbene, the Trust sued ATGF,
contending that ATGF was required to defend against Nassimbene’s
claims because they were covered by the title insurance policy. The
Trust also argued, in the alternative, that ATGF was obligated to
defend against Nassimbene’s claims under the complete defense
rule. The court rejected both of the Trust’s arguments and granted
ATGF’s motion for summary judgment.
4 II. Issues on Appeal
¶ 12 The Trust advances two issues on appeal. First, the Trust
argues that Nassimbene’s claims implicated its right to access the
Property and thus were covered by the title insurance policy.
Second, the Trust argues that, even if Nassimbene’s claims weren’t
covered by the policy, ATGF was nevertheless required to defend
against them under the complete defense rule. For the reasons
discussed below, we reject both contentions.
A. The Policy Didn’t Cover Nassimbene’s Claims
¶ 13 First, the Trust argues that Nassimbene’s claims implicated its
right to access the Property and therefore it was insured against
those claims under either Covered Risk 4 or Covered Risk 5 of the
policy (or both). We disagree.
1. Additional Facts
¶ 14 The title insurance policy insured the Trust against loss or
damage arising from certain covered risks and obligated ATGF to
“pay the costs, including attorneys’ fees, and expenses incurred in
defense of any matter insured against by this Policy, but only to the
extent provided in the Conditions.”
5 ¶ 15 Among the covered risks in the policy, two are pertinent to this
appeal. Under Covered Risk 4, ATGF agreed to cover a defect in
title if there is “[n]o right of access to and from the [Property].”
Additionally, under Covered Risk 5, ATGF agreed to cover
[t]he violation or encroachment of any law, ordinance, permit, or governmental regulation, (including those relating to building and zoning) restricting, regulating, prohibiting, or relating to —
(a) the occupancy, use, or enjoyment of the [Property];
....
If a notice, describing any part of the [Property], is recorded in the Public Records setting forth the violation or intention to enforce, but only to the extent of the violation or enforcement referred to in that notice.
(Emphasis added.) And “Public Records” under the policy are
“[r]ecords established under state statutes at Date of Policy [July
11, 2018] for the purpose of imparting constructive notice of
matters relating to real property to purchasers for value and
without [k]nowledge.”
¶ 16 The policy contains several exclusions to coverage.
Exclusion 1(a) specifically excludes from coverage any losses due to
6 [a]ny law, ordinance, permit, or governmental regulation (including those relating to building and zoning) restricting, regulating, prohibiting, or relating to
(i) the occupancy, use, or enjoyment of the [Property];
or the effect of any violation of these laws, ordinances, or governmental regulations. This Exclusion 1(a) does not modify or limit the coverage provided under Covered Risk 5.
¶ 17 Exclusion 3 excludes from coverage
[d]efects, liens, encumbrances, adverse claims, or other matters
(a) created, suffered, assumed, or agreed to by the Insured Claimant . . .
(d) attaching or created subsequent to Date of Policy [July 11, 2018] . . . .
¶ 18 As noted above, Nassimbene didn’t dispute that the Trust had
an easement to access the Property via Homestead Lane; instead,
he asserted that the Trust’s easement didn’t include the right to
pave the portion of Homestead Lane running across his property.
Nassimbene claimed that by paving the road without authorization,
the Trust had trespassed on his property and damaged shade trees
7 and other vegetation. Nassimbene also described a maintenance
agreement between himself and several neighbors to share the costs
associated with maintaining several local private roads — including
Homestead Lane. Under this agreement, a majority of the
signatories to the maintenance agreement was required to approve
any maintenance expenditures, which hadn’t occurred. He alleged
that the Trust had unjustly enriched itself to his detriment by
increasing the cost of maintaining Homestead Lane without
committing to cover that cost.
¶ 19 ATGF refused to indemnify or defend the Trust against
Nassimbene’s claims, so the Trust sued. ATGF moved for summary
judgment, arguing that Nassimbene’s claims weren’t covered by the
title insurance policy and that the complete defense rule shouldn’t
be applied in the title insurance context.
¶ 20 In granting summary judgment in ATGF’s favor, the district
court ruled that Nassimbene’s claims weren’t covered by the title
insurance policy for three reasons. First, the district court
determined that, under Covered Risk 5, ATGF was only obligated to
defend against loss of access to the Property due to governmental
codes and regulations if there was a recorded notice describing the
8 violation or an intent to enforce the violation of any code or
regulation. Second, the district court reasoned that, under
Exclusion 3(a) and (d), the title insurance policy didn’t cover issues
that were “‘created, suffered, assumed or agreed to’ by the Trust.”
Third, the district court declined to extend the complete defense
rule to the context of title insurance, citing Cherry Hills Farm Court,
LLC v. First American Title Insurance Co., 428 F. Supp. 3d 516 (D.
Colo. 2019).
2. Standard of Review
¶ 21 We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Preferred
Pro. Ins. Co. v. Drs. Co., 2018 COA 49, ¶ 11. Summary judgment is
appropriate when there is no dispute as to any material fact and the
moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Bainbridge,
Inc. v. Travelers Cas. Co. of Conn., 159 P.3d 748, 750 (Colo. App.
2006).
¶ 22 Interpreting a contract presents a question of law that we
review de novo. Cagle v. Mathers Fam. Tr., 2013 CO 7, ¶ 16. An
insurer has a duty to provide an insured a defense when the
allegations in the underlying complaint, if sustained, would impose
“liability potentially or arguably covered by the policy.” Bainbridge,
9 159 P.3d at 750. To determine if it has the responsibility to defend
against a claim, “[a]n insurer looks to the four corners of the
complaint, together with the policy.” Id. We do the same in
determining whether the district court’s grant of summary
judgment was proper. See id.
3. Analysis
¶ 23 We address and reject the Trust’s assertions of coverage under
Covered Risk 4 and Covered Risk 5 separately below.
a. Nassimbene’s Claims Aren’t Covered by Covered Risk 4
¶ 24 The Trust argues that Nassimbene’s claims implicated its right
of access under Covered Risk 4, that the “no right of access”
language in Covered Risk 4 is ambiguous, and that its right of
access included the right to pave Homestead Lane, since absent
that improvement, the Trust wouldn’t be allowed to build a home on
the Property. We reject the Trust’s arguments because (1) the term
“no right of access” isn’t ambiguous, and Nassimbene’s complaint
didn’t dispute that the Trust had a right of access over Homestead
Lane; and (2) Covered Risk 4 doesn’t insure access sufficient to
develop the property.
10 i. Nassimbene Didn’t Challenge the Trust’s Right to Access the Property
¶ 25 We begin our analysis by rejecting the Trust’s assertion that,
because the term “access” isn’t defined in the title insurance policy,
a “right of access” is ambiguous and includes something more than
“access.” The phrase “no right of access” in Covered Risk 4 isn’t
ambiguous. Access is defined as “[a] right . . . to enter, approach,
[or] pass to and from.” Access, Black’s Law Dictionary 16 (12th ed.
2024). Therefore, “no right of access,” as applied to the Trust,
would mean that the Trust had no right to enter, approach, or pass
to and from the Property.
¶ 26 Based on this understanding of the meaning of “no right of
access,” we conclude that Nassimbene’s claims against the Trust
didn’t implicate Covered Risk 4 because the Trust didn’t allege that
it had “[n]o right of access to and from the [Property].” See Am.
Fam. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hansen, 2016 CO 46, ¶ 27 (courts apply
unambiguous contractual language as written). Instead,
Nassimbene claimed that the Trust had trespassed onto his land by
paving and expanding the road, which damaged his land and
unjustly enriched the Trust by potentially burdening Nassimbene
11 with significant future maintenance costs. Nothing in Nassimbene’s
complaint, however, challenged the Trust’s right of access to the
Property.
¶ 27 Nor was the Trust’s right of access to the Property ever in
jeopardy. The Trust never claimed that its ability to access the
Property was curtailed, only that its ability to pave Homestead Lane
so that it could develop the Property was. And the fire protection
district never indicated that the Trust’s right of access to the
Property was contingent on paving Homestead Lane; it determined
only that, if any portion of Homestead Lane was paved, the entirety
of it would have to be paved to comply with the fire code.
ii. Covered Risk 4 Doesn’t Insure Access Sufficient to Develop the Property
¶ 28 In the alternative, the Trust argues that unencumbered access
to and from the local highway isn’t enough to satisfy its “right of
access” under Covered Risk 4 — its right of access also has to be
sufficient to develop the Property. The Trust cites First American
Title Insurance Co. v. GS Industries, LLC, an unpublished federal
district court case from Hawaii, as persuasive authority for the
proposition that a right of access must be sufficient to develop a
12 property. No. 21-CV-00078-DKW-KJM, 2021 WL 5985124, at *4-8
(D. Haw. Dec. 16, 2021). First American doesn’t support this
proposition.
¶ 29 In First American, GS Industries obtained ownership of a
parcel of land that had legal ingress but no legal egress because the
public road that serviced the land was a one-way road and the
portion of the road that allowed for egress from the land was
privately owned. Id. at *1, *3. GS leased the land to a church that
planned to build low-income housing units on the parcel. Id. at *3.
While pursuing its plan to develop the land, the church applied for
affordable housing exemptions from the Department of Planning
and Permitting. Id. The Department denied the church’s
application due to the lack of egress. Id. The church submitted a
claim to First American for the cost of obtaining legal egress from
the land — estimated at approximately $10,000. Id.
¶ 30 After First American denied the claim multiple times, GS sued
for a declaratory judgment to determine its rights under the policy.
Id. at *4. First American argued that because the policy excluded
issues with access that resulted from governmental regulation, it
had no duty to cover the cost of obtaining egress. Id. The court
13 disagreed, ruling that the issue of lack of egress predated the
governmental regulation and noting that the land had lacked legal
egress before, and regardless of, the plans to develop the land. Id.
at *7. Thus, the court reasoned, GS never had a complete right of
access to the land, and its lack of access wasn’t due to
governmental regulation, but to a covered deficiency in the title to
the land. Id. Put simply, the church in First American never had a
right of access because the land never had legal egress.
¶ 31 The opposite is true here. The Trust had a right of access to
and from the local highway via Homestead Lane when it purchased
the Property. And it was only when the Trust decided to build a
residence on the Property — which, in turn, required the Trust to
pave a portion of Homestead Lane — that the fire protection
district’s regulations required the Trust to pave the entirety of
Homestead Lane to comply with the fire code. Therefore, unlike in
First American, the requirement for the Trust to upgrade access to
the Property was a direct result of governmental regulation; it
wasn’t due to a pre-existing defect in the title. Consequently,
Nassimbene’s claims don’t fall under Covered Risk 4. See
Bainbridge, 159 P.3d at 750.
14 b. Covered Risk 5 Doesn’t Insure Against Nassimbene’s Claims, Which Instead Fall Under Exclusions 1 and 3
¶ 32 We also conclude that Nassimbene’s claims don’t fall under
the purview of Covered Risk 5 for three reasons. To start, Covered
Risk 5 requires notice of a regulation or of the intent to enforce the
violation of a regulation to be in the public records as of the policy’s
effective date, and that such notice must mention at least part of
the Property. The Trust doesn’t claim that any such notice as to the
need to pave the entirety of Homestead Lane because of the fire
code was present in the public records.
¶ 33 Second, while Covered Risk 5 covers violations and
enforcement of governmental regulations, Exclusion 1 excludes
from coverage any impact of governmental regulation on the
Property if a notice of that impact isn’t recorded as of the policy’s
effective date. Because the mandatory paving of the entirety of
Homestead Lane was incidental to the development of the Property
and resulted from governmental enforcement occurring after the
effective date of the policy, the Trust’s argument fails.
¶ 34 Third, because the fire protection district didn’t require the
rest of Homestead Lane to be paved until the Trust decided to
15 develop the Property and upgrade the driveway, the enforcement of
the fire code occurred after the policy’s effective date. Therefore, the
code enforcement issue was necessarily “created . . . by the Insured
Claimant” and falls under Exclusion 3.
¶ 35 To put it simply, neither the nature of Nassimbene’s claims,
nor the case law on which the Trust relies, nor the terms of the title
insurance policy support the argument that the Trust has “no right
of access” unless it has sufficient access to develop the Property.
Accordingly, we discern no error in the district court’s
determination that Nassimbene’s claims weren’t covered by the title
insurance policy.
B. Complete Defense Rule
¶ 36 The Trust next argues that, even if Nassimbene’s claims
weren’t covered by the title insurance policy, ATGF was nonetheless
obligated to provide a defense against the claims under the
complete defense rule. We disagree.
1. Standard of Review
¶ 37 The complete defense rule requires an insurance company to
defend against all the claims in a complaint or discrete piece of
litigation if any one of the claims asserted in the litigation is
16 arguably covered by the policy. See, e.g., Carl’s Italian Rest. v.
Truck Ins. Exch., 183 P.3d 636, 639 (Colo. App. 2007).
¶ 38 Whether a title insurance company has a duty to defend
against a complaint is a question of law, which we review de novo.
Id.
2. Analysis
¶ 39 The Trust argues that because Nassimbene’s claims couldn’t
be easily bifurcated from Stark’s original claims, and because both
Nassimbene’s and Stark’s claims were asserted in a single suit and
implicated the Trust’s right to access the Property, ATGF was
required to defend the Trust against both sets of claims under the
complete defense rule. We aren’t persuaded.
¶ 40 In holding that the complete defense rule doesn’t apply to
litigation involving title insurance, the district court relied
substantially on Cherry Hills, 428 F. Supp. 3d at 522-24. In Cherry
Hills, the federal district court for the District of Colorado correctly
observed that no Colorado appellate case had applied the complete
defense rule in a title insurance case. Id. at 522-23. Instead,
Colorado courts have only applied the complete defense rule in a
general liability context. See id. (collecting cases); see, e.g., Sachs v.
17 Am. Fam. Mut. Ins. Co., 251 P.3d 543, 547 (Colo. App. 2010); Carl’s
Italian, 183 P.3d at 639; Bainbridge, 159 P.3d at 756; Mgmt.
Specialists, Inc. v. Northfield Ins. Co., 117 P.3d 32, 36 (Colo. App.
2004).
¶ 41 Based on decisions from other jurisdictions that have declined
to apply the complete defense rule in the title insurance context, the
court in Cherry Hills then predicted that the Colorado Supreme
Court wouldn’t apply the complete defense rule to a dispute
involving title insurance coverage. 428 F. Supp. at 523-25.
¶ 42 For instance, in GMAC Mortgage, LLC v. First American Title
Insurance Co., 985 N.E.2d 823, 828 (Mass. 2013), the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that the complete
defense rule is inapplicable in the context of title insurance
litigation because title insurance is “fundamentally different from
general liability insurance.” Specifically, the court noted that
“[b]efore issuing a policy, a title insurer searches real property
records for title defects and, if any are discovered, excludes such
known defects from the policy coverage.” Id. Accordingly, the court
observed that title insurance is retrospective because it “narrowly
covers defects in, or encumbrances on, titles that are in existence
18 when a policy issues,” as opposed to general liability insurance,
which covers prospective risks. Id. The GMAC court also observed
that, unlike general liability insurance, which requires the payment
of ongoing premiums, title insurance requires the payment of only a
single premium for indefinite coverage. Id. at 828-29. The court in
GMAC further reasoned that “the central policy behind [the
complete defense rule] — that parsing multiple claims is not
feasible — is not implicated to the same extent in the title insurance
context as in the general liability insurance context” because the
issues in title insurance disputes tend to be discrete and easily
bifurcated from other related claims. Id. at 829-30 (recognizing that
“an attorney for a title insurance company . . . feasibly can defend
only the title-related issues”).
¶ 43 And for many of the same reasons identified in GMAC, other
jurisdictions have also concluded that the complete defense rule
doesn’t apply to title insurance litigation. See Lupu v. Loan City,
LLC, 903 F.3d 382, 393-95 (3d Cir. 2018) (applying Pennsylvania
law and predicting that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would
decline to apply the complete defense rule to title insurance
disputes); Phila. Indem. Ins. Co. v. Chi. Title Ins. Co., 771 F.3d 391,
19 398-401 (7th Cir. 2014) (declining to apply the complete defense
rule to a title insurance dispute under Illinois law); Findlay v. Chi.
Title Ins. Co., 2022 IL App (1st) 210889, ¶¶ 57-64 (endorsing
Philadelphia Indemnity’s interpretation of Illinois law); Badger
Mining Corp. v. First Am. Title Ins. Co., 534 F. Supp. 3d 1011, 1021-
22 (W.D. Wis. 2021) (holding that the complete defense rule doesn’t
apply to title insurance under Wisconsin law).
¶ 44 While we aren’t bound by a federal court’s interpretation of
state law, see Redden v. Clear Creek Skiing Corp., 2020 COA 176,
¶ 44, we are nonetheless persuaded by the convincing policy
rationale presented in Cherry Hills and the out-of-state authority on
which it relies.
¶ 45 In particular, the distinctions between title and general
liability insurance convince us that the complete defense rule
shouldn’t extend to title insurance. For instance, general liability
insurance policies typically have broad language promising to
defend against “‘a suit’ or ‘any suit,’” Cherry Hills, 428 F. Supp. 3d
at 524 (quoting Phila. Indem., 771 F.3d at 399), whereas ATGF’s
title insurance policy promised to cover expenses “incurred in
defense of any matter insured against by the Policy, but only to the
20 extent provided in the Conditions.” Similarly, other language in the
ATGF policy — namely, Covered Risk 5(a) — states that ATGF will
only “provide for the defense of an Insured in litigation in which any
third party asserts a claim covered by this policy” and clarifies that
“[ATGF] shall not be liable for and will not pay the fees, costs, or
expenses incurred by the Insured in the defense of those causes of
action that allege matters not insured against by this policy.”
¶ 46 This clear language limiting ATGF’s liability naturally invokes
another reason not to extend the complete defense rule — the
parties bargained for an unambiguous and limited range of liability.
Expanding that liability without finding ambiguity in the contract
would create a windfall for the insured party because the insured
would be getting significant benefits that they didn’t bargain or pay
for. See id.; see also Lupu, 903 F.3d at 395 (“Given the relatively
modest title insurance premium, if we force Stewart Title to cover
more than it promised, [the insured] will receive a windfall.”); cf.
Essentia Ins. Co. v. Hughes, 2024 CO 17, ¶¶ 2, 52 (imposing less
onerous coverage requirements on carriers providing specialty
automobile insurance policies covering classic cars, rather than
regular-use vehicles, based, in part, on the fact that “specialty
21 policies [carry] much more affordable premiums than those charged
in standard policies for regular-use vehicles”).
¶ 47 We are particularly convinced that it doesn’t make sense to
apply the complete defense rule in the context of title insurance
because claims covered by a title insurance policy can be more
readily bifurcated from other types of claims within a proceeding.
Indeed, the rationale behind the application of the complete defense
rule in the general liability context is that there is typically no
reasonable means to bifurcate claims in such proceedings and
apportion the costs of defending covered and noncovered claims.
See, e.g., GMAC, 985 N.E.2d at 828 (“A rationale behind [the
complete defense] rule is that dividing representation between
covered and noncovered claims is impractical.”); cf. Equal Emp.
Opportunity Comm’n v. S. Publ’g Co., 894 F.2d 785, 791 (5th Cir.
1990) (observing that the purpose of the complete defense rule is to
require the insurer to bear the entire cost of defense when “there is
no reasonable means of prorating the costs of defense between the
covered and the not-covered items” (quoting Ins. Co. of N. Am. v.
Forty-Eight Insulations, Inc., 633 F.2d 1212, 1224-25 (6th Cir.
1980))).
22 ¶ 48 And the course of events here underscores the ease with which
claims covered by title insurance can be readily split from other,
noncovered claims in the same litigation. The attorneys retained by
ATGF successfully defended the Trust against Stark’s claim that the
Trust had no legal right to access the Property via Homestead Lane.
But because Nassimbene didn’t contest the Trust’s right to access
the Property, the court’s legal determination that the Trust had a
right to use Homestead Lane didn’t resolve Nassimbene’s third-
party claims for trespass and unjust enrichment arising from the
Trust’s paving of a portion of Homestead Lane. And the Trust was
then able to retain counsel at its own expense and resolve
Nassimbene’s claims to its satisfaction. In sum, contrary to the
Trust’s suggestion that the Stark and Nassimbene claims weren’t
capable of being bifurcated, the history of these proceedings
demonstrates otherwise.
¶ 49 The Trust also suggests that the rationale of Cherry Hills and
the other cases declining to apply the complete defense rule to title
insurance policies doesn’t apply here. For instance, the Trust
attempts to distinguish Cherry Hills, 428 F. Supp. 3d at 521-22, by
suggesting that the court in Cherry Hills simply refused to extend a
23 title insurer’s duty to defend to monetary claims, which don’t affect
title. But we reject such a distinction because Nassimbene’s third-
party claims were monetary claims for damages allegedly caused by
the Trust’s paving of Homestead Lane and for the future costs of
maintaining the newly paved driveway. Put another way, even if
Nassimbene’s claims had been successful, an award of monetary
damages to Nassimbene wouldn’t have affected the Trust’s title to
the Property and corresponding ongoing right to use Homestead
Lane for access. See id. at 522 (discussing how the noncovered
claim did “not seek to enjoin the use or possession of the property”).
¶ 50 In summary, we decline to apply the complete defense rule to
the title insurance context. And because we have already rejected
the Trust’s assertion that Nassimbene’s claims otherwise involved
the Trust’s right of access to the Property, we conclude that the
district court properly granted summary judgment in ATGF’s favor.
III. Disposition
¶ 51 The judgment is affirmed.
JUDGE BROWN and JUDGE MOULTRIE concur.