Golden Eagle Ins. Corp. v. Cen-Fed, Ltd.

In its appeal, defendant Cen-Fed, Ltd. (Cen-Fed) challenges the decision of; the trial court that its commercial general liability insurer, plaintiff Golden Eagle Insurance Corporation (Golden Eagle), owed neither a defense nor an obligation to indemnify Cen-Fed for damages awarded against it in the underlying action filed by Washington Mutual Bank (WMB). That action was based on the breach of a lease for commercial premises between Cen-Fed as lessor and WMB as lessee. In its cross-appeal, Golden Eagle, which had provided Cen-Fed a defense to the underlying action under a reservation of rights, challenges the trial court’s ruling that it was obligated to pay (pursuant to the supplementary payments provisions of its policy) the costs (including attorney’s fees) awarded against Cen-Fed in WMB’s underlying action in spite of the trial court’s determination that Golden Eagle had neither a duty to, defend nor indemnify the claims asserted in that action.

We conclude that the trial court correctly determined that Golden Eagle was not liable to indemnify Cen-Fed for the damages awarded against it in the underlying action. Moreover, since there was no coverage under the Golden…