California Court of Appeal

In this case, plaintiff alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Rebagliati, and she filed a civil lawsuit against him and other purported assailants. Rebagliati sought insurance coverage for his defense against plaintiff’s claims, issued by defendants Fire Insurance Exchange (Fire) and Truck Insurance Exchange (Truck). Both companies denied coverage, and eventually, Rebagliati settled with plaintiff, assigning her his rights against Fire and Truck. Plaintiff subsequently filed this action against the insurers for breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing and breach of contract. She also sought recovery of judgment. The trial court granted defendant-insurers their motion for summary judgment. The order granting summary judgment is reversed and the case is remanded with directions to enter an order denying summary judgment as to Truck and granting summary judgment as to Fire, where: 1) summary judgment was properly granted in favor of Fire, because none of plaintiff’s claims can be construed to allege an accidental occurrence triggering insurance coverage; and 2) the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Truck, as the insurer failed to conclusively demonstrate its policy exclusions eliminated all potential for coverage.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/04/2015
• Published 03/04/2015

Judges

• Premo

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel