(DOWNLOAD) "Crocker v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh" by In the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Crocker v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh
- Author : In the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Release Date : January 24, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
Description
In this Texas law diversity case, plaintiff-appellee Beatrice Crocker seeks to recover from defendant-appellant National Union Fire Insurance Company on the basis of a Texas court $1,000,000 default judgment rendered in her favor against Richard Morris. The basis for the judgment was a personal injury allegedly suffered by Crocker as a result of Morriss negligent conduct in the course of his employment with National Unions named insured in its applicable commercial general liability insurance policy in which Morris was an additional (unnamed or omnibus) insured. After the default judgment against Morris became final, Crocker sued National Union in Texas court as a third party beneficiary of its liability policy, claiming entitlement to recovery on the basis that National Union breached its duty to defend and indemnify Morris under its policy. National Union removed the case to federal court on the basis of diversity of citizenship. Both parties moved for summary judgment. National Union took the position that under the terms of its policy Morris was not covered because he did not give it any notice of the suit or a copy of the citation with which he was served and did not ever request a defense. Crocker took the position that National Union could not invoke those policy provisions because it timely knew of the suit against Morris (who did not know he was covered by the National Union policy) and was not prejudiced by the lack of compliance with those policy provisions and breached its duty to Morris by failing to defend him or tender him a defense. The district court granted Crockers motion. On National Unions appeal, we certified the determinative questions of Texas law to the Supreme Court of Texas. Crocker v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., 466 F.3d 347 (5th Cir. 2006). The Texas Supreme Court has issued its opinion answering those questions. National Union Fire Insurance Co. v. Crocker, 51 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 518, 246 S.W.3d 603 (Tex. 2008). We refer to these two prior opinions for a fuller statement.