Mt. Hawley Ins. Co. v. Slay Eng'g, Tex. Multi-Chem, & Huser Constr. Co.

335 F. Supp. 3d 874
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 15, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 5-18-cv-00252-OLG
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 335 F. Supp. 3d 874 (Mt. Hawley Ins. Co. v. Slay Eng'g, Tex. Multi-Chem, & Huser Constr. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mt. Hawley Ins. Co. v. Slay Eng'g, Tex. Multi-Chem, & Huser Constr. Co., 335 F. Supp. 3d 874 (W.D. Tex. 2018).

Opinion

ORLANDO L. GARCIA, Chief United States District Judge

On this day, the Court considered Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment on the Duty to Defend (docket no. 11) ("Defendant's Motion") and Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (docket no. 13)1 ("Plaintiff's Motion," and collectively with Defendant's Motion, the "Motions"). After considering the Motions and for the reasons set forth below, the Court finds *879that Defendant's Motion should be GRANTED and Plaintiff's Motion should be DENIED.

BACKGROUND

The present case concerns a coverage dispute between a general contractor, Defendant Slay Engineering / Texas Multi-Chem / Huser Construction ("Defendant" or "Huser"), and its insurer, Plaintiff Mt. Hawley Insurance Company ("Plaintiff" or "Mt. Hawley"). Before beginning its substantive analysis of the Motions, the Court will first briefly summarize the relevant factual background and the parties' underlying insurance agreements.

A. Project Background and Relevant Chronology

On July 20, 2015, the City of Jourdanton (the "City") entered into a construction contract with Defendant Huser (a joint venture) to design and construct a municipal sports complex (the "Project"). The Project consisted of four little league baseball fields, a softball field, parking lots, and a new swimming pool. Huser entered into a subcontract with Cody Pools, Inc. ("Cody Pools") to design and build the swimming pool. Huser also entered a subcontract with Q-Haul, Inc. ("Q-Haul") to perform earthwork, grading, and storm drainage work at the site, including for the planned paved parking lots.

On January 10, 2015, after substantial completion of the Project, a Huser employee noticed cracks in the pool and in the parking lot paving. Huser placed Cody Pools on notice of the defective work and requested that Cody Pools provide a repair solution. Huser did not immediately place Q-Haul on notice because the parking lot cracks appeared to be minor. Cody Pools began repair work on the pool shortly thereafter. However, in early March 2015, a Huser employee again noticed that the pool cracks appeared to be worsening. Cody Pools and Huser were unable to agree on a future repair solution for the pool.

On May 3, 2017, the City notified Huser of several alleged deficiencies involving the swimming pool structure, asphalt paving, concrete flatwork and curbing, and overall site drainage. Throughout the summer of 2017, the City, Huser, Cody Pools and Q-Hall engaged engineers and conducted ongoing discussion as to how any defects to the Project could best be cured. Cody Pools asserted-through an engineer it had hired to evaluate the pool-that the pool structure was stable and that minor crack repairs would allow the pool to be operational for several years. However, on August 30, 2017, the City rejected Cody Pools' repair proposal.

On December 21, 2017, the City filed a lawsuit against Huser alleging breach of contract and negligence claims. See City of Jourdanton v. Slay Engineering / Texas Multi-Chem / Huser Construction, LLC and North American Specialty Ins. Co. , No. 17-12-1181-CVA (81st Judicial District Court of Atascosa County, Texas) (hereinafter, the "Underlying Suit"). On February 13, 2018, the City filed its First Amended Petition, which alleged-in part-that the "work performed by [Huser], its subcontractors and suppliers, was [ ] defective and not in compliance with the requirements of the agreement with the City or with the duties of care arising thereunder." Docket no. 11-12 ¶ 4.7. Specifically, the City alleged "substantial cracks in the swimming pool, parking lot, drives and other paved surfaces ... and deficient site drainage." Id. at ¶ 3.3.

On February 21, 2018, following receipt of the First Amended Petition, Huser notified Plaintiff Mt. Hawley of the claims filed by the City and provided Mt. Hawley with the First Amended Petition. Five *880days later, the City filed a Second Amended Petition, which contained allegations substantially similar to those in the First Amended Petition. See docket no. 1-1 (the "Second Amended Petition" or "Petition"). Huser also provided Mt. Hawley with the City's Second Amended Petition, and it is the live pleading in the Underlying Suit. See id.

On March 14, 2018, Mt. Hawley acknowledged that it had received the Second Amended Petition and that its coverage analysis would be conducted based on the updated complaint, rather than based on the City's prior pleadings. See docket no. 11-15. On March 16, 2018, Mt. Hawley denied coverage to Huser based on certain exclusions in Huser's insurance policies with Mt. Hawley. See docket no. 11-16.

On March 16, 2018, Mt. Hawley filed this instant lawsuit seeking a judgment declaring that it has no duty to indemnify or defend Huser with respect to the allegations in the City's Underlying Suit. See docket no. 1. On April 6, 2018, Mt. Hawley served Huser with this federal lawsuit. Defendant's Motion notes that on the same day, Mt. Hawley also served Huser with a separate federal complaint seeking a similar declaratory judgment (that will require the interpretation of the same underlying contract language) with respect to a separate Huser-related state court litigation in Harris County, Texas.2 See docket no. 11 p. 6.

On April 27, 2018, Huser answered Mt. Hawley's federal complaint and filed counterclaims asserting that Mt. Hawley breached its agreement with Huser and violated the Texas Insurance Code by denying coverage and failing to pay Huser's claims and defense costs. See docket no. 6.

B. Governing Mt. Hawley Insurance Policies

With respect to the relevant period, Mt. Hawley issued two types of policies providing certain insurance coverage to Huser (collectively, the "Policies"): Commercial General Liability Policies spanning December 31, 2014 through January 1, 2019, see, e.g. , docket no. 1-2, and Commercial Excess Liability Policies issued for the same period, see, e.g. , docket no. 1-6. The terms of each of the Policies appear to be the same or substantially similar.

As a general matter, the Policies provide insurance coverage for "bodily injury" and "property damage." See, e.g. , docket no. 1-2 p. 4. Coverage under the Policies applies only if the "bodily injury" or "property damage" is caused by an "occurrence" that takes place in the "coverage territory" during the "policy period." Id. An "occurrence," under the Policies, is defined as an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions. See id. at pp. 18-19. "Property damage," as defined by the Policies, is (a) physical injury to tangible property, including all resulting loss of use of that property, and (b) loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured. See id. at p. 19.

Further, pursuant to Section I.A of the Commercial General Liability Policies, Mt. Hawley "will have the right and duty to defend the insured against any 'suit' seeking ... damages" related to any such covered "property damage" or "bodily injury." Id. at p. 4. However, the Policies state that *881Mt.

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Bluebook (online)
335 F. Supp. 3d 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mt-hawley-ins-co-v-slay-engg-tex-multi-chem-huser-constr-co-txwd-2018.