United Specialty Ins. Co. v. Premier Contracting of N.Y., Inc.

375 F. Supp. 3d 389
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 21, 2019
Docket17-CV-6570 (JPO)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 375 F. Supp. 3d 389 (United Specialty Ins. Co. v. Premier Contracting of N.Y., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Specialty Ins. Co. v. Premier Contracting of N.Y., Inc., 375 F. Supp. 3d 389 (S.D. Ill. 2019).

Opinion

J. PAUL OETKEN, United States District Judge

In this declaratory-judgment action brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201, Plaintiff United Specialty Insurance Company ("United") seeks a declaration that an insurance policy it issued to Defendant Premier Contracting of New York, Inc. ("Premier") does not require United to defend or indemnify Premier or its owner, Defendant Michael T. Rich, Jr., in connection with a New York state-court action that has been filed against Premier, Rich, and others by Defendant Marlen J. Garcia Rodriguez. (Dkt. No. 5 at 11.) United also seeks a declaration that it is entitled to recoup from Defendants Premier and Rich the costs it has thus far incurred in defending the state-court action. (Id. ; see also Dkt. No. 27 at 1.) United has moved for summary judgment against all three Defendants (Dkt. No. 24), and Defendants Premier and Rich have filed a cross-motion for summary judgment against United (Dkt. No. 37). For the following reasons, United's motion for summary judgment is granted, and Premier and Rich's cross-motion is denied.

I. Background

A. Factual Background

This case asks whether Plaintiff United bears any contractual duty to defend or indemnify Defendants Premier and Rich in a state-court tort action filed against them by Defendant Marlen Rodriguez after the death of her brother, Jorge Alfonso Garcia *392Rodriguez, in a September 26, 2015 workplace accident (the "Rodriguez Action "). (See Dkt. No. 26-9 ¶¶ 3, 206-08.) The Court first details the relevant provisions of the insurance contract between United and Premier, before describing the evidence surrounding the events of September 26, 2015, and outlining the relevant progress of the Rodriguez Action. Unless otherwise noted, the following facts are all undisputed.1

1. The Insurance Contract

Premier, along with its executive officers and directors, is covered by a United-issued general-liability insurance policy (the "Policy") that spans a policy period of September 30, 2014 to September 30, 2015. (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 1; Dkt. No. 55 ¶ 32; Dkt. No. 26-8 at 4, 23.) As relevant here, the Policy generally requires United to (1) pay "those sums" that Premier becomes "legally obligated to pay as damages because of 'bodily injury' " suffered during the policy period and (2) defend Premier against "any 'suit' seeking those damages." (Dkt. No. 26-8 at 15.)

United's duties, though, are limited by two pertinent exclusions. First, United has no obligations with respect to the injuries of " 'employee[s]' of [Premier]," where those injuries "aris[e] out of and in the course of ... [e]mployment by [Premier]; or ... [p]erforming duties related to the conduct of [Premier's] business." (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 2; Dkt. No. 26-8 at 74.) Second, United has no obligations with respect to the injuries of "[a]ny independent contractor or the 'employee' of any independent contractor while such independent contractor or their 'employee' is working on behalf of [Premier]."2 (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 3; Dkt. No. 26-8 at 76.)

2. The Events of September 26, 2015

On September 26, 2015, Jorge Rodriguez was working on a demolition project at a property owned by Leggett Avenue Property LLC ("Leggett") when he suffered a fatal fall from an elevated height. (Dkt. No. 25-1 at 0037-0038; Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 7; Dkt. No. 26-10 ¶ 3.)

Days later, on September 29, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") inspected the worksite where Jorge Rodriguez had fallen. (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 10; Dkt. No. 25-1 at 0001.) The investigator identified Premier as the employer at the site (Dkt. No. 25-1 at 0034, 0037, 0040) and determined that the accident had occurred while "Premier employees," including Jorge Rodriguez and Defendant Rich, Premier's owner and president at the time, were demolishing a metal structure (Dkt. No. 25-1 at 0037-0038; see also Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 11). After the inspection, OSHA issued a citation and penalties against Premier, which OSHA characterized as the responsible "employer." (Dkt. No. 25-1 at 0007; Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 13.)

Meanwhile, the New York State Workers' Compensation Board (the "WC Board") took a different view-at least initially-of the employment relationship between Jorge Rodriguez and Premier. At a July 17, 2017 hearing, a WC Board judge found that Jorge Rodriguez had not been *393working for Premier at the time he suffered his "work related injury," but instead had been employed by Metal Depot Corp., a company that the WC Board characterized as Premier's "Sub Contractor" on the site. (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 19; Dkt. No. 26-12.) Because Metal Depot was uninsured, though, the WC Board concluded that Premier, as the "General Contractor," was responsible under state law, see N.Y. Workers' Comp. Law § 56, for any workers' compensation payments owed to Jorge Rodriguez's estate.3 (Dkt. No. 47 ¶¶ 19-20; Dkt. No. 26-12.)

The WC Board, though, later reversed course in an August 2, 2018 decision. (Dkt. No. 61-1.) Acknowledging that it had not had the benefit of OSHA's findings when it initially considered Jorge Rodriguez's case, it rescinded its earlier finding that Metal Depot had been the employer at the accident site and instead found that "[Premier] [was] the proper employer based on [its] direct employment of" Jorge Rodriguez. (Id. at 4.) Accordingly, the WC Board retroactively modified its earlier decision to reflect this changed understanding.4 (Id. )

Finally, as part of this litigation, Defendant Rich has submitted a sworn statement that reflects his own view of the events of September 26, 2015. (Dkt. No. 55 ¶ 35; Dkt. No. 46.) Consistent with the OSHA and WC Board findings, Rich acknowledges that Premier had been working at the Leggett property at the time of the accident, "cleaning and removing debris and structures." (Id. ) But to the extent that Metal Depot was also present, Rich maintains that it was neither acting as "an independent contractor of Premier" nor "working on the site on behalf of Premier." (Id. ) In other words, Rich contends, Premier "did not contract or subcontract with Metal Depot to do any work on September 26, 2015" at the Leggett property. (Id. )

3. The Rodriguez Action

On April 3, 2017, Defendant Marlen Rodriguez, as administratrix of Jorge Rodriguez's estate, filed a lawsuit against Defendants Premier and Rich, as well as Leggett, Metal Depot, and others in the Bronx County Supreme Court.5 (Dkt. No. 47 ¶ 5; Dkt. No.

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375 F. Supp. 3d 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-specialty-ins-co-v-premier-contracting-of-ny-inc-ilsd-2019.