Taylor | Anderson represented an insurance company which provides private passenger automobile liability and physical damage coverage in California, Arizona and Texas.
The company’s insured was driving while on a business trip when he got into a car accident resulting in serious personal injury to one party. The insured’s policy was a personal auto policy that did not provide coverage for driving in the course and scope of employment. The insured also had insurance through his employer, but neither the employer’s insurer (the plaintiff) nor the employee’s insurer (the defendant) wanted to pay the defense costs for the underlying lawsuit concerning the car accident.
The employer’s insurance company incurred $175,000 in fees for defending the underlying lawsuit involving the car accident and sought to recover these fees from the employee’s insurance company, Taylor | Anderson’s client, in a case alleging that the employee’s personal auto insurance company was the primary carrier responsible for the losses owing to the auto accident.
Taylor | Anderson lawyers defended the employee’s insurer in a two-day bench trial. The judge agreed that the employee’s personal auto insurance policy did not provide coverage for the underlying accident and awarded the plaintiff none of its $175,000 in damages.