Firemans Fund Insurance Compan v. North Pacific Insurance Company

In case number 10-35414, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees North Pacific Insurance Company and Oregon Automobile Insurance Company (collectively, North Pacific), appeal the district court’s judgment, entered after a bench trial, holding that North Pacific owes Plaintiffs-Appellees/Cross-Appellants Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and National Surety Company (collectively, Fireman’s Fund) approximately $2.1 million in equitable contribution toward defense costs incurred by Ed Niemi Oil Company and related entities with respect to environmental cleanup actions brought by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. As the facts and procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them here except as necessary to explain our disposition.

We have jurisdiction over the district court’s grant of summary judgment, which rejected North Pacific’s untimely notice affirmative defense. 28 U.S.C. § 1291 ; see, e.g., Banuelos v. Constr. Laborers’ Trust Funds for S. Cal., 382 F.3d 897, 902-03 (9th Cir.2004). Because Ortiz v. Jordan, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 884, 892 , 178 L.Ed.2d 703 (2011), expressly declined to consider whether such “purely legal issue[s]” are appealable…