Clarendon America Ins. Co. v. Starnet Ins. Co.

Charlston, Revich & Wollitz, Howard N. Wollitz and Allan J. Favish for Cross-defendant and Appellant.

Foley & Lardner, Eileen R. Ridley and Patrick T. Wong for Cross-complainant and Respondent.

FYBEL, J.

We hold, as a matter of first impression, the provision in a commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policy requiring the insurer to "defend the insured against any `suit' seeking . . . damages" to which the insurance applies includes the duty to defend the insured in proceedings under the Calderon Act, Civil Code section 1375 et seq. (All further code references are to the Civil Code unless otherwise noted.) Because the trial court reached the same conclusion, we affirm the judgment.

The CGL policies in issue, as all standard CGL policies, define "suit" to mean "a civil proceeding in which damages . . . to which this insurance applies are alleged." The process prescribed by the Calderon Act (the Calderon Process) is a civil proceeding within this definition. The Calderon Act requires a common interest development association to satisfy certain dispute resolution requirements with respect to the builder, developer, or general contractor before the association may file a…