Chateau De Louis v. Everest Indemnity Co. CA1/2

BACKGROUND

In August 2002, Chateau-Real and Pinewave entered into three separate contracts in which Pinewave agreed to construct three condominium buildings on lots owned by Chateau-Real. Pinewave was insured under a commercial general liability policy issued by Everest (the Everest policy) and effective from September 17, 2002 to March 17, 2004. Pinewave demanded arbitration in June 2004, pursuant to its contracts with Chateau-Real, seeking payment allegedly owed for work performed on the construction project. Chateau-Real filed a counterclaim with the arbitrator, asserting that Pinewave had breached the contracts. An arbitration hearing was held over three days in August 2005. No written record of the hearing was made. At the arbitration, Chateau-Real introduced evidence of different categories of damages through photographs, its witnesses, and expert testimony. In the award decision by the arbitrator, certain damage amounts were deducted from the damages claimed by Chateau-Real. Accordingly, Chateau-Real obtained an arbitration award against Pinewave and, later, a revised award that corrected for some erroneous deductions. The award to Chateau-Real was broken down as follows:…