Pardee Construction Co. v. Insurance of the West

The primary issue presented by this appeal is whether insurers that have issued commercial general liability (CGL) policies to subcontractors, including completed operations coverage as to projects completed before their inception, owe a duty to defend the additionally insured general contractor in third party litigation asserting its vicarious liability for their acts. Here, where the insurers acknowledge the subcontractors had such completed operations coverage for the project that gave rise to the underlying litigation, we conclude that absent language excluding such coverage in the policies, certificates and endorsements the insurers owe the general contractor a duty to defend.

Pardee Construction Company (Pardee) appeals judgments for four insurers, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (Liberty), Insurance Company of the West (ICW), Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Nationwide) and U.S. Fire Insurance Company (U.S. Fire), dismissing its claims against them for breach of contract, bad faith, fraud and indemnity. The judgments were entered after the trial court declared the insurers did not owe a duty to defend Pardee, an additional insured under each CGL policy, in an…