Supreme Court of Delaware

In a declaratory judgment action by an insurer asserting a lack of reinsurance coverage, partial summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where the Prior Notice Exclusion in the policy used unqualified, broad phrases that unambiguously permitted prior notice to be given by any entity with respect to any policy and defendant failed to give simultaneous notification to each insurance tower. However, partial summary judgment for defendant is reversed where reading the policy's Prior Acts Exclusion in tandem with the Amend Retention endorsement did not create an ambiguity, because each had a distinct and independent purpose and function.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/22/2010
• Published 04/22/2010

Judges

• STEELE, Chief Justice., Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND and JACOBS, Justices.

Court

• Supreme Court of Delaware

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• David J. Baldwin and Jennifer C. Wasson of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: William G. Passannante (argued) and Alexander D. Hardiman of Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C., New York, New York, for plaintiffs HLTH Corporation and Emdeon Practice Services, Inc., J.R. Julian of J.R. Julian, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: Barry T. Bassis (argued) of Tressler LLP, New York, New York for Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.


• For Appellees:
  
• William L. Doerler of White and Williams LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: Lawrence J. Bistany (argued) of White and Williams LLP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for defendant National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA., Robert J. Katzenstein of Smith, Katzenstein & Furlow LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: Joan M. Gilbride (argued) and Robert A. Benjamin of Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan LLP, New York, NY, for defendant RSUI Indemnity Company., Robert J. Katzenstein of Smith, Katzenstein & Furlow LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: William E. Smith and Parker J. Lavin of Wiley Rein LLP, Washington, DC for defendant Axis Reinsurance Company., Neal J. Levitsky and Seth A. Niederman of Fox Rothschild LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Of Counsel: Michael Goodstein (argued) and Matthew J. Burkhart of Bailey Cavalieri LLC, Columbus, Ohio for defendant Old Republic Insurance Company.