Century Surety Co. v. 350 W.A., LLC

MEMORANDUM

This is an appeal by 350 WA., LLC (“350”) from the entry of summary judgment in favor of Century Surety Company (“Century”) in Century’s action for a declaratory judgment that a commercial insurance policy it issued to 350 as owner of a commercial office building did not provide coverage for the wrongful eviction of one of the tenants. The tenant, Jacqueline Helleis d.b.a. Flagship Research, had obtained a sizable judgement against 350 for the wrongful eviction. California law applies.

We reverse the summary judgment on coverage and hold that under the relevant provision of the policy, where coverage was provided for wrongful eviction of “premises that a person occupies,” there was coverage for the wrongful eviction of this tenant, who was a person occupying the premises. Century attempts to rely on Mirpad, LLC v. California Insurance Guarantee Association, 132 Cal.App.4th 1058 , 34 Cal.Rptr.3d 136 (2005), to suggest that a business is not a “person” within the meaning- of the policy provision, even though the entity evicted in this case was an individual doing business in the commercial building insured under the policy. See Pinkerton’s, Inc. v. Superior Court, 49…