Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Forrest County

164 F. Supp. 3d 899, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18288, 2016 WL 626549
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 16, 2016
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 2:14-CV-22-KS-MTP
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 164 F. Supp. 3d 899 (Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Forrest County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Forrest County, 164 F. Supp. 3d 899, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18288, 2016 WL 626549 (S.D. Miss. 2016).

Opinion

MemoraNdum Opinion and Order

Keith Starrett, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

For the reasons below, the Court grants the Motion for Leave to File [197] a sur-reply filed by Counter-Plaintiffs Mitchell, Smith, Strong, Dixon, and Ruffin; grants the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings [134] filed by Counter-Defendants Swiss RE International, previously Zurich Specialties London Limited, and Gemini Insurance Company; and grants the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings [223] filed by Counter-Defendant Steadfast Insurance Company.

I. Background

This is a liability insurance coverage case arising from a civil rights lawsuit. The underlying plaintiffs are three individuals convicted of a crime they did not commit and the children of one the wrongfully convicted plaintiffs. They allege that law enforcement officers of the City of Hatties-burg, Mississippi, and Forrest County, Mississippi, coerced their false confessions through violence and-threats of violence, fabricated evidence, ignored potentially exculpatory evidence, and otherwise conspired to prosecute them without probable cause- — -all motived by racial animus. These events happened over thirty years ago, and the wrongfully convicted plaintiffs were not exonerated until 2010 and 2011, after collectively spending eighty-three years in prison. They filed a lawsuit against Hattiesburg, Forrest County, and several individual law enforcement officers in their official and individual capacities. See Bivens v. Forrest County, No. 2:13-CV-8-KS-MTP, 2015 WL 1457529, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40602 (S.D.Miss. March 30, 2015) (providing detailed background of the underlying case). Of particular note to the present case, the Bivens Plaintiffs claim that the Bivens Defendants have committed continuing civil rights violations over the past thirty years by failing to come forward and rectify their earlier misconduct.

Several insurance companies — The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, and St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (collectively, the “Travelers Insurers”) — filed a Complaint [1] in this Court seeking a declaratory judgment that they had no duty to defend or indemnify the Bivens Defendants against these [901]*901claims. The Travelers Insurers issued almost two dozen different liability policies to Forrest County from 1993-1999 and 2005-2014. ■

The Bivens Defendants filed counterclaims [28, 32] against St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (“St. Paul”), claiming that St. Paul had breached its contractual duty to defend and indemnify them in the underlying suit. The Bivens Plaintiffs likewise filed counterclaims [62, 63] seeking a declaratory judgment that the Travelers Insurers have a contractual duty to defend and indemnify the Bivens Defendants against their civil rights claims. They also filed third-party claims [68] against Sirius America Insurance Company (“Sirius”), First Mercury Insurance Company (“First Mercury”), Great American E & S Insurance Company (“Great American”), Zurich Specialties London Limited (“Zurich”), Steadfast Insurance Company (“Steadfast”), and Gemini Insurance Company (“Gemini”), seeking declaratory judgments that each insurer was required to defend and indemnify the Bivens Defendants against their civil rights claims pursuant to liability policies issued at some point during the past thirty years. The Bivens Defendants then asserted their own third-party claims [71] against Sirius, First Mercury, Great American, Zurich, Steadfast, and Gemini.

Zurich1 and Steadfast filed Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings [134, 223] as to the third-party claims asserted by the Bivens Plaintiffs and Defendants. The motions are ripe for review.2

II. Standard of Review

A “motion for judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c) is subject to the same standard as a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6).” Doe v. MySpace, Inc., 528 F.3d 413, 418 (5th Cir.2008). To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. LLC v. La. State, 624 F.3d 201, 210 (5th Cir.2010) (punctuation omitted). “To be plausible, the complaint’s factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. (punctuation omitted). The Court must “accept all well-pleaded facts as true and construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Id. But the Court will not accept as true “conclusory allegations, unwarranted factual inferences, or legal conclusions.” [902]*902Id. Likewise, “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” PSKS, Inc. v. Leegin Creative Leather Prods., Inc., 615 F.3d 412, 417 (5th Cir.2010) (punctuation omitted). “While legal conclusions can provide the framework of a complaint, they must be supported by factual allegations.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1950, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

“[D]ocuments that a defendant attaches to a motion to dismiss are considered part of the pleadings if they are referred to in the plaintiffs complaint and are central to her claim.” Collins v. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 224 F.3d 496, 498 (5th Cir.2000). Therefore, the Court may permissibly consider the copies of the subject insurance policies attached to Counter-Defendants’ motions [134-1, 134-2, 134-3,134-4, 223-1, 223-2].

III. Applicable Law

A.Duty to Defend

“Under Mississippi law, an insurer’s duties to defend and indemnify its insured are distinct and separable duties requiring the use of different standards.” Estate of Bradley v. Royal Surplus Lines Ins. Co., 647 F.3d 524, 529 (5th Cir.2011). To determine whether an insurance company has a duty to defend its policyholder against suit, the Court looks “at the facts alleged in the complaint, together with the policy.” Auto. Ins. Co. of Hartford v. Lipscomb, 75 So.3d 557, 559 (Miss.2011). “[A]n insurer’s duty to defend is triggered when the allegations of the complaint reasonably bring a claim within the coverage of its policy.” Carl E. Woodward, L.L.C. v. Acceptance Indem. Ins. Co., 749 F.3d 395, 398 (5th Cir.2014) (quoting Baker Donelson Bearman & Caldwell, P.C. v. Muirhead, 920 So.2d 440, 451 (Miss.2006)) (punctuation omitted). There is no duty to defend if “the alleged conduct falls outside the policy’s coverage,” but if the insurer “becomes aware that the true facts, if established, present a claim against the insured which potentially would be covered under the policy, the insurer must provide a defense until it appears that the facts upon which liability is predicated fall outside the policy’s coverage.”

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Related

Brown v. Lee
S.D. Mississippi, 2021
Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Forrest County
195 F. Supp. 3d 890 (S.D. Mississippi, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
164 F. Supp. 3d 899, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18288, 2016 WL 626549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/travelers-indemnity-co-v-forrest-county-mssd-2016.