St. Paul Mercury Insurance Co. v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

MEMORANDUM

St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, a subsidiary of The Travelers Companies, Inc. (Travelers), appeals from the district court’s decision granting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s motion for summary judgment and denying Travelers’ motion for summary judgment. As the parties are familiar with the facts, we do not recount them here. We review de novo the district court’s decision. Avery v. First Resolution Mgmt. Corp., 568 F.3d 1018, 1021 (9th Cir. 2009). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

1. Preliminarily, we note that the precise language of this precise insurance policy has been held to be ambiguous by the Eleventh Circuit, which concluded that the FDIC was entitled to relief for the same reasons it advances here. See St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co. v. FDIC, 774 F.3d 702, 710-11 (11th Cir. 2014). We are reluctant to afford a different meaning to the provisions of an insurance policy than it has been given in another circuit in the absence of a clearly erroneous construction by that circuit. Here, we can by no means so characterize the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation of the policy. In fact, we believe it to be correct.

2. The…