Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
An insurance company defended a construction firm against a claim by a condo association for defective design and construction of a building, as it thought the claim arose during the company’s policy period. The insurance company was not estopped from later denying payment for the claim when it was discovered that the claim had in fact arisen 10 years before the policy went into effect.
In 2002, the Blue Moon Lofts Condominium Association filed a complaint against The Structural Shop, Ltd in Illinois state court seeking damages arising out of TSS’s allegedly defective design and construction of a building. Blue Moon served notice of action to TSS’s registered agent, Thomas Donohoe on November 2002. TSS never responded to the notice or appeared in the state court action to defend itself, leading in May 2003 to the state court declaring the company in default. In 2009, the state court entered a default judgment and set the damages amount at $1,356,435 plus costs.
Many years later, Essex Insurance Company sold TSS a policy for claims first made against TSS from May 2012 to May 2013. Essex knew nothing about the prior litigation. For a time, both TSS and Essex believed that Blue Moon had failed to properly serve TSS in 2002, and thus had first brought notice of the claim to TSS in 2012 when it attempted to collect the default judgment. Laboring under this mistaken belief, TSS petitioned the state court to vacate the default judgment. The court granted the motion and vacated the judgment. TSS then informed Essex of the developments and Blue Moon’s claim. Essex, unaware that Blue Moon had properly served TSS in 2002, considered the claim to have arisen during the policy period and thus acted on its duty to defend TSS. Continue reading ›