Great American Assurance Company v. Zurich American Insurance Company
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
GREAT AMERICAN ASSURANCE
COMPANY, Case No. 21-cv-01135-RS
Plaintiff,
ORDER FOR FURTHER BRIEFING
v.
ZURICH AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 The parties’ various cross-motions in this matter were heard in August of 2022. The parties were directed to engage in further efforts to resolve their disputes through mediation, which they did. At a further case management conference in November of 2022, the parties reported that they had been unable to reach a resolution and were unlikely to make further progress absent a court decision on the merits of the pending motions or at a minimum, court “guidance” on evidentiary issues and the scope and extent of the mediation privilege. In Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Superior Ct., 9 Cal. 5th 215, 226 (2020), the California Supreme Court articulated a rule under which, “the insured has access to any excess policy once it has exhausted other directly underlying excess policies with lower…