St. Paul Mercury Insurance v. Frontier Pacific Insurance

This action involves contribution claims among insurers, arising from the settlement of complaints filed after a fatal crane accident. St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company (St. Paul) insured Bigge Crane and Rigging Company (Bigge) as an additional insured under the liability policy of Schuff Steel Company (Schuff), which rented the crane from Bigge. Additionally, Frontier Pacific Insurance Company (Frontier) and American International Specialty Lines Insurance Company (AISLIC) covered Bigge under primary and excess policies, respectively.

St. Paul persuasively contends the trial court erred by interpreting ambiguous terms in St. Paul’s policy against it to cover Bigge for its own negligence and strict products liability, as Bigge had no objectively reasonable expectation of such coverage. Frontier, AISLIC and Bigge persuasively contend the court erred by refusing to allocate fault for the underlying accident between Schuff and Bigge, since that is the only means of determining whether St. Paul’s policy is primary to Frontier’s policy for any portion of the settlement. We reverse the November 30, 2000 judgment on St. Paul’s complaint against Frontier, AISLIC and Bigge, and…