Northfield Insurance Company v. Rambow

District Court, E.D. Washington·Decided July 21, 2025·No. 2:25-cv-00025·Unknown

Opinion

1 FILED IN THE 2 U.S. DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 3 Jul 21, 2025 4 SEAN F. MCAVOY, CLERK 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 10 11 NORTHFIELD INSURANCE No. 2:25-CV-00025-SAB 12 COMPANY, a foreign insurer, 13 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION 14 v. FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT AS 15 TO DEFENDANT AMARO 16 JENNIFER RAMBOW, an individual; 17 ISIDRO CRUZ AMARO a/k/a 18 “JUNIOR”, an individual; JETAIME 19 RENAE CRUZ, an individual; and 20 DESERT DEBAUCHERY, LLC, a 21 Washington limited liability company, 22 Defendants. 23 24 Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment, ECF No. 29. 25 Plaintiff is represented by Alexander Goldman and Thomas Lether. Defendant 26 Desert Debauchery LLC is represented by Kasey Huebner and Emily Uppal. 27 Defendants Rambow, Cruz, and Amaro, have been served and have not made 28 appearances. The motion was considered without oral argument. 1 First, the parties have informed the Court they have reached settlement as to 2 Plaintiff and Defendants Desert Debauchery, Jennifer Rambow and Jetaime Renae 3 Cruz, which the Court will address in a separate order. Thus, the pending motion 4 for default remains as to Defendant Isidro Cruz Amaro, only. 5 Having reviewed the briefing and caselaw, the Court grants the motion. 6 MOTION STANDARD 7 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(1), a party can move for default judgment 8 if a party “has failed to plead or otherwise defend” the action. Local Civil Rule 9 55(b) requires: (1) the party file a motion for entry of default and obtain an order of 10 default from the clerk of court; and (2) the party file a motion for default judgment. 11 Granting default judgment is left to the discretion of the court; it is not automatic. 12 See Aldabe v. Aldabe, 616 F.2d 1089, 1092 (9th Cir. 1980). 13 In reviewing the motion, a court shall consider: “(1) the possibility of 14 prejudice to the plaintiff, (2) the merits of plaintiff's substantive claim, (3) the 15 sufficiency of the complaint, (4) the sum of money at stake in the action; (5) the 16 possibility of a dispute concerning material facts; (6) whether the default was due 17 to excusable neglect, and (7) the strong policy underlying the Federal Rules of 18 Civil Procedure favoring decisions on the merits.” Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 19 1471–72 (9th Cir. 1986). 20 BACKGROUND 21 This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of 22 Washington on January 20, 2025. Plaintiff Northfield Insurance seeks a declaratory 23 judgment that it does not have an obligation to provide any defense coverage or 24 indemnity coverage to Defendant Amaro under the Northfield Insurance Policy 25 (“the Policy”) issued to Desert Debauchery, LLC and NW Cruz Investments LLC, 26 with regards to claims in the underlying lawsuit. The allegations of the underlying 27 lawsuit are as follows. 28 Plaintiff alleges that on February 9, 2021, Defendant Rambow and a friend 1 Ms. Hemme had food and drinks at R Place Tavern in Desert Aire, Washington. It 2 further alleges Ms. Rambow met Defendant Amaro at the tavern, and he identified 3 himself as the owner and encouraged her to drink several shots of tequila and 4 numerous drinks over several hours. At close, Mr. Amaro allegedly invited Ms. 5 Rambow and her friend to stay, play pool, and drink more, which they did despite 6 the allegation Ms. Rambow was “blacked out” from drinking. Later, Mr. Amaro 7 allegedly drove Ms. Rambow and Ms. Hemme to Ms. Hemme’s house, where Ms. 8 Rambow required assistance to the guest room. Mr. Amaro stayed to talk with Ms. 9 Hemme, and later she told him to lock the door on his way out. However, the door 10 remained unlocked in the morning, and Ms. Rambow alleges she woke up to 11 intense pain indicative of being vaginally and anally raped. 12 Ms. Rambow reported the incident to the Grant County Police Department, 13 and the police collected a rape kit for forensics. Mr. Amaro’s DNA was identified 14 in the kit, and the police interviewed Ms. Rambow, Mr. Amaro, and Ms. Hemme. 15 Plaintiff alleges Defendant Cruz was not involved in the incident but was 16 Mr. Amaro’s spouse and is part owner of Desert Debauchery. 17 On March 19, 2024, Plaintiff received notice of the underlying lawsuit filed 18 in Grant County Superior Court, Rambow v. Amaro et. al., case no. 24-2-00177-13. 19 The Policy issued by Plaintiff to Desert Debauchery and NW Cruz 20 Investments is two part: (1) for Commercial General Liability Coverage and (2) for 21 Liquor Liability Coverage. They each ran from January 13, 2021, to January 13, 22 2022. Below are the Policy provisions relevant to the Motion for Default 23 Judgment. 24 The General Liability Policy states, in relevant part: 25 COVERAGE A BODILY INJURY AND PROPERTY DAMAGE 26 LIABILITY 27 1. Insuring Agreement 28 1 a. We will pay those sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of "bodily injury" or 2 "property damage" to which this insurance applies. We 3 will have the right and duty to defend the insured against any "suit" seeking those damages. However, we will 4 have no duty to defend the insured against any "suit" seeking damages for "bodily injury" or "property 5 damage" to which this insurance does not apply. We 6 may, at our discretion, investigate any "occurrence" and settle any claim or "suit" that may result. 7

8 [. . .]

9 b. This insurance applies to "bodily injury" and "property damage" only if: 10

11 (1) The "bodily injury" or "property damage" is caused by an "occurrence" that takes place in the 12 “coverage territory”; 13 (2) The "bodily injury" or "property damage" occurs 14 during the policy period;

15 The General Policy further includes: 16

17 SECTION V – DEFINITION 18 3. "Bodily injury" means bodily injury, sickness or disease 19 sustained by a person, including death resulting from any 20 of these at any time. [. . .] 21 2. Exclusions 22

23 This insurance does not apply to:

24 a. Expected Or Intended Injury 25 “Bodily injury” or “property damage” expected or 26 intended from the standpoint of the insured. This exclusion does not apply to “bodily injury” 27 resulting from the use of reasonable force to 28 protect persons or property. 1 Further, all coverage of designated premises under a special endorsement 2 included only the lots at: 3 4 - 610 Main St. SW in Desert Aire, Washington; and 5 - 103 Frontier Way SW in Mattawa, Washington. 6 7 Under the Liquor Liability Endorsement in the General Liability Policy, there is 8 an exclusion for insured-caused damage: 9 The following replaces Exclusion c., Liquor Liability, in 10 Paragraph 2., Exclusions, of SECTION I - COVERAGES - 11 COVERAGE A BODILY INJURY AND PROPERTY DAMAGE LIABILITY: 12 13 c. Liquor Liability

14 "Bodily injury" or "property damage" for which any insured may be held liable by reason of: 15

16 (1) Causing or contributing to the intoxication of any person, including causing or contributing to the 17 intoxication of any person because alcoholic 18 beverages were permitted to be brought on your premises for consumption on your premises; 19 [. . .] 20

21 (3) Any statute, ordinance or regulation relating to the sale, gift, distribution or use of alcoholic 22 beverages. 23 The General Liability Policy also contains an endorsement regarding assault 24 and battery: 25

26 PROVISIONS 27 1.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Northfield Insurance Company v. Rambow, (E.D. Wash. 2025).

Northfield Insurance Company v. Rambow (Northfield Insurance Company v. Rambow) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Alvera M. Aldabe v. Charles D. Aldabe
616 F.2d 1089 (Ninth Circuit, 1980)
Gary R. Eitel v. William D. McCool
782 F.2d 1470 (Ninth Circuit, 1986)
United States v. Loughner
782 F. Supp. 2d 829 (D. Arizona, 2011)
Pepsico, Inc. v. California Security Cans
238 F. Supp. 2d 1172 (C.D. California, 2002)