Northrop Corp. v. American Motorists Insurance

Plaintiff Northrop Corporation appeals from the order granting the motion of defendant American Motorists Insurance Company (hereafter AMICO) to dismiss, on grounds of inconvenient forum, Northrop’s action against AMICO and four other insurers concerning insurance coverage for a hazardous chemical spill in Massachusetts. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 410.30, subd. (a), 904.1, subd. (d).) Because the superior court’s determination that the balance of relevant factors favored trial in Massachusetts rather than California is not supported by substantial evidence, the dismissal will be reversed.

Facts

Northrop’s complaint against its primary liability insurance carrier AMI-CO, and four companies providing coverage in excess of AMICO’s, seeks declaratory relief and damages for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. After setting forth its relationship as the defendants’ insured, Northrop alleges that in February 1985 it discovered a spill of an industrial solvent, “TCA,” from storage tanks at Northrop’s Precision Products Division, in Norwood, Massachusetts. Subsequently, in 1987, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality…