Employers Insurance v. Albert D. Seeno Construction Co.

ORDER

This diversity case began as a declaratory judgment action by an insurance company seeking a declaration that it is not liable for third-party claims alleging faulty work by one of its insureds, a home construction firm and developer. Plaintiff has now moved to disqualify the primary defendant’s lead counsel. Defendant has in turn cross-moved to disqualify plaintiff’s main counsel. For the reasons discussed below, the Court denies both motions.

BACKGROUND

Defendant Albert D. Seeno Construction Company (collectively with associated defendants “Seeno”) is a real estate developer that obtained various insurance policies from plaintiff Employers Insurance of Wausau (“Wausau”) in connection with Seeno’s construction of a large number of homes. Buyers of several hundred of those homes brought claims against Seeno for a variety of alleged construction defects. After Seeno submitted these claims to Wausau, dispute arose as to whether these claims are covered by Seeno’s policies with Wausau and regarding the proper method of handling these third-party claims. Wausau reserved its rights to deny coverage, and in March 1986 Seeno exercised its rights to engage independent Cumis…