Cubic Corp. v. Insurance Co. of North America

Cubic Corporation (Cubic) brought suit against the Insurance Company of North America, Continental Insurance Company, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, and Hartford Insurance Company (the Insurers) seeking a declaratory judgment and damages for tortious breach of insurance contracts. Cubic contended that the Insurers should investigate, defend and reimburse the costs of suits arising out of Cubic’s bribery of high officials in the Defense Department.

The district court dismissed for failure to state a claim. We affirm.

FACTS

Cubic entered into contracts providing general liability insurance as follows:

The Broad Form Comprehensive Liability Endorsement of the Insurers provided that the company would pay all sums that Cubic became legally obligated to pay “as damages because of personal injury or advertising injury.” With immaterial differences each policy defined advertising injury to mean “injury arising out of an offense committed during the policy period occurring in the course of the named insured’s advertising activities, if such injury arises out of libel, slander, defamation, violation of right of privacy, piracy, unfair competition, or infringement of…