Reid Burman Lebedeker Xenick Pepin

Final Summary Judgment Granted

Junior Partner and Coverage Group Co-Chair Jessalea Shettle filed a Declaratory Judgment action on behalf of Progressive Express Insurance Company requesting the Court to determine as a matter of law that a policy of commercial insurance issued to Saw Enterprises did not apply to an automobile accident involving a trailer owned by Saw Enterprises towed by a non-owned auto. Progressive’s coverage position was contested by Progressive’s insured and the underlying Plaintiff, who argued to the Court that there should be coverage initially under the temporary substitute mechanism and then under the mobile equipment endorsement. Jessalea successfully argued the non-owned auto did not qualify as a temporary substitute and the trailer involved in the accident did not qualify for coverage under the mobile equipment endorsement, eradicating any possibility of coverage for the underlying accident under the commercial auto policy. The Court issued an unequivocal ruling that Progressive had no duty to defend or indemnify any party resulting out of the underlying accident and subsequent litigation.