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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Ind. Decisions - Supreme Court decides one today
In Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. v. United States Filter Corp., et al, a 13-page, 4-0 opinion, Chief Justice Shepard writes:
Five corporations seek insurance coverage from insurers who issued liability policies for their predecessors. The underlying litigation involves bodily injury claims relating to the operation of an industrial blast machine. The corporations say that coverage rights passed to them through the same corporate transactions that brought them the blast machine assets. The trial court agreed and granted summary judgment to the current holder of the assets.For background, see this ILB entry from Oct. 10, headed "Supreme Court orders hundreds of pages of sealed documents in a pending case to be open and available for public inspection."Each of the implicated insurance policies contains a provision that bars assignment of the policy without the consent of the insurer. We hold that consent is required for any assignment of policy rights, unless the assignment occurs after an identifiable loss, in which case the right to receive payment on that claim may be transferred without consent. Because the corporations neither obtained consent nor made a post-loss assignment, we direct judgment for the insurers. * * *
Conclusion. We reverse the trial court’s summary judgment determination and direct entry of judgment for the Insurers on the issues at contest in the present appeal.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 15, 2008 05:45 PM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions