Hangley Aronchick prevailed on behalf of client Federal Insurance Co., a Chubb entity, in a coverage dispute in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The case stemmed from a mine worker’s death.
Dana Mining Company of Pennsylvania sought coverage for an underlying wrongful death action as a named insured under a general liability policy Federal and Brickstreet Mutual Insurance Co. issued to Mepco Holdings, which employed the man at the time of his fatal accident. Federal contended that it had no duty to defend or indemnify Dana Mining under an exclusion to the policy exclusion that barred coverage for “any insured” in the underlying action.
Hangley Aronchick’s Insurance Coverage team, which included practice chair Ronald Schiller, shareholder Bonnie Hoffman and associate Elizabeth Dolce, successfully argued Federal’s position in an earlier case involving the same parties and policy before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. In that case, the West Virginia high court ruled that the policy required joint liability for the insureds and that a separate provision did not conflict with the employer’s liability exclusion.
In its decision, the Pennsylvania court agreed with that analysis in finding that the employer’s liability provision unambiguously barred coverage for Dana Mining in the underlying action.
