Ranger Insurance v. Home Indemnity Co.Ranger Insurance v. Home Indemnity Co.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
This multi-count action arises from a dispute between defendant Home Indemnity Co. (“Home”), the primary carrier of comprehensive liability coverage for Mid States General & Mechanical Contracting Corp. (“Mid States”) and plaintiff Ranger Insurance Co., the excess carrier, over who should assume liability for the judgment and post-judgment interest assessed against Mid States in a personal injury action. Currently before the Court are various motions for summary judgment and to dismiss. For the reasons set forth below, we grant Ranger’s motion for summary judgment on Count I and to dismiss the counterclaim and deny Home’s motion for summary judgment on all counts.
I.
Factual Background
In 1983, Paul Hall, an employee of the Corrigan Co., was killed when he fell through a catwalk at an Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (“ADM”) plant in Decatur, Illinois. ADM had hired the Corrigan Co. to fit pipes in a construction project at the Decatur plant. Sarah Hall, conservator of Hall’s estate, filed a personal injury action against Mid States, general contractor for the project, and ADM. ADM settled with Hall for $1,500,000 and thereafter pursued contribution claims against Mid States and the Corrigan Co. At the time, Home insured Mid States for up to $500,-000 under a primary coverage policy. Mid States also had excess coverage under a policy with Ranger. Throughout the Hall litigation, Home assumed full responsibility for Mid States’ defense. After a trial on ADM’s contribution claims, a jury found Mid States 48% at fault for Paul Hall’s accident, and the court entered judgment against Mid States in the amount of $788,-989.
Mid States appealed. As at trial, Home controlled the litigation and at no time requested Ranger’s participation. Before the appellate court rendered its decision, Home offered to settle with ADM for $500,000, the face value of the primary coverage policy, without interest. ADM accepted on the condition that Ranger pay the remaining $288,989. Ranger, apparently optimistic about Mid States’ chances on appeal, offered ADM $145,000. ADM refused, and the parties decided to forego settlement and rely on their fortunes before the appellate courts. At least in the short term, Ranger’s optimism proved well-founded. On April 7, 1986, the appellate court reversed the jury verdict and remanded for retrial.
Hall v. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.,
This action originally involved only Ranger and Home’s dispute over how liability for post-judgment interest on the $788,989 judgment against Mid States should be apportioned. In what is now Count I, Ranger charges that Home is liable for interest on the entire judgment, including Ranger’s $288,989 portion. Since the original complaint, the parties’ differences have widened into an attempt by each side to pin on the other liability for the entire judgment. *958 In Counts II and III of its amended complaint, Ranger charges that Home’s failure to engage in reasonable settlement negotiations with Sarah Hall before ADM settled for $1,500,000 violated its duties as primary carrier to Ranger and thus renders Home additionally liable for Ranger’s $288,989 portion of the judgment. Home charges in a counterclaim that Ranger’s refusal to accept ADM’s offer prior to the appellate decision, a settlement that would have spared both parties post-judgment interest, violated Ranger’s duty to Home to pursue settlement in good faith and that Ranger is accordingly liable for all post-judgment interest and Home’s $500,000 portion of the judgment. The motions here are directed at all counts, and we address each in turn.
II.
Count I
Ranger’s claim that Home is liable for post-judgment interest that accrued on the entire judgment against Mid States hinges on the following provision in the Home policy:
The company [Home] will pay, in addition to the applicable limit of liability [i.e., $500,000]:
(a) All expenses incurred by the company, all costs taxed against the insured in any suit defended by the company and all interest on the entire amount of any judgment therein which accrues after entry of the judgment and before the company has paid or tendered or deposited in court that part of the judgment which does not exceed the limit of the company’s liability thereon.
Home never tendered to ADM or deposited in any state court the full amount of the judgment against it — $500,000 plus interest accrued on that amount. Accordingly, Ranger concludes, Home must additionally assume Ranger’s liability for post-judgment interest on that portion of the judgment covered by the Ranger excess liability policy.
Illinois law, which the parties agree governs this action, squarely supports Ranger’s application of this post-judgment interest provision. In
River Valley Cartage Co. v. Hawkeye-Security Ins. Co.,
Recently, an Illinois appellate court interpreted a substantially identical clause in an action between the insured’s primary and excess carriers.
Hartford Acci. & Indem.
*959
Co. v. Aetna Ins. Co.,
Home seeks to avoid liability under the post-judgment interest clause by contending initially that it tendered payment within the meaning of the clause when it offered $500,000 to ADM and ADM expressed a willingness to accept that amount as full payment. In effect, Home argues that it should not be penalized for attempting a tender that failed only because Ranger refused to accept ADM’s terms. We do not view Ranger’s conduct as a basis for relieving Home of its obligations under the post-judgment interest clause. Home agreed to assume all risks accompanying an appeal, including the possibility that in the event the insured incurred liability in excess of the primary coverage, an excess carrier might not agree to settle with the judgment creditor on Home’s terms. As the court reasoned in Hartford Indemnity, the existence of excess coverage does not change Home’s duties under the post-judgment interest clause. Ranger owed no duty to Home or Mid States to settle on the judgment creditor and primary carrier’s terms. 3 Home could have avoided any further liability under the post-judgment interest clause by immediately tendering the appropriate amount ($500,000 plus interest and costs accrued to that point) to ADM or by depositing the same in court. It did neither and is accordingly additionally responsible under River Valley for interest accrued on Ranger’s portion of the judgment.
Home contends further that Ranger’s bad faith failure to accept ADM’s settlement offer which would have relieved Home of liability under the post-judgment interest clause excuses Home’s failure to tender. Even if Ranger’s conduct could somehow relieve Home of its liability under the post-judgment interest clause, a proposition of law we reject in Section IV of this opinion, Home cannot defeat Ranger’s motion for summary judgment or prevail in its own motion on this basis because it has presented no evidence supporting a finding that Ranger’s decision to reject ADM’s offer was made in bad faith.
The fact that Ranger turned down an offer that later proved favorable does not by itself support a finding of bad faith.
Browning v. Heritage Ins. Co.,
If [Ranger] chose the correct course on the basis of what [it] knew, [it] should not be called mistaken because of unavoidable uncertainty about whether the cause would succeed.
Steele v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co.,
Finally, Home contends that Ranger is liable for the post-judgment interest that accrued during appeal under the following provision in the Ranger policy:
APPEALS. In the event the insured or the insured’s underlying insurer elects not to appeal a judgment in excess of the retained limit, the Company may elect to do so at its own expense, and shall be liable for the taxable costs, disbursements and interest incidental thereto, but in no event shall the liability of the Company for ultimate net loss exceed the amount set forth in Insuring Agreement III (Limit of Liability — Retained Limit) for any one occurrence plus the taxable costs, disbursements and interest incidental to such appeal.
This provision has no relevance to this case because by its very terms it applies only when Mid States or Home, as the underlying insurer, elect not to appeal.
In sum, Home is liable as a matter of law under the post-judgment interest provision for interest accruing on the entire judgment against Mid States. Neither Ranger’s refusal to settle on Home’s and ADM’s terms nor the condition in the Ranger policy create an issue of material fact or support of judgment in Home’s favor. Accordingly, Ranger’s motion for summary judgment on Count I is granted, and Home’s cross-motion is denied.
III.
Counts II and III
In Counts II and III, Ranger charges that Home negligently or in bad faith failed to settle with Hall on behalf of Mid States within the coverage cap of $500,000 when it had an opportunity to do so and thereby exposed Ranger to liability as excess carrier. Home seeks judgment on these claims essentially on three grounds: Home owed no duty to Ranger to attempt to settle within the policy limit, Ranger’s claim is preempted by § 155 of the Illinois Insurance Code, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 73, ¶ 767, and the undisputed facts establish that Home negotiated with due care and in good faith.
A. The Primary Carrier’s Duty to an Excess Carrier
Under Illinois law, a primary carrier has a duty to the insured to undertake settlement negotiations with care and in good faith with a potential judgment creditor in an effort to resolve the underlying dispute within policy limits.
Scroggins v. Allstate Ins. Co.,
We are thus faced with deciding whether, as Ranger additionally contends, a primary carrier owes a direct duty to the excess carrier to attempt to settle within the primary coverage cap. Again, Illinois decisional law provides minimal guidance.
*961
Nevertheless, we believe that the Illinois Supreme Court would impose such a duty and allow an excess carrier to bring suit in its own right to remedy a breach of that duty. Courts across the country are increasingly amenable to recognizing that a primary carrier owes a direct duty to an excess carrier.
See, e.g., Vencill v. Continental Casualty Co.,
Basic principles of tort law support the imposition of this duty despite the lack of contractual privity between the carriers. Illinois law imposes a duty of care when the following conditions are met: the alleged tortfeasor could have reasonably foreseen that its conduct would injure the plaintiff and policy considerations justify placing the risks and the burden of care on the defendant.
See generally Kirk v. Michael Reese Hospital & Medical Center,
[These reasons] include the encouragement of settlements when an offer exists at or near the policy limits, discouraging gambling with the excess carrier’s money, hoping to keep excess liability insurance premiums low, reducing the necessity for the excess carrier to participate in the defense of the action to protect its rights, and reflecting the duties of the primary carrier to perform the duty which it has delegated to itself, that is, providing primary coverage.
R. Long,
The Law of Liability Insurance
§ 5.63 at 5-472 (1980). The mere existence of an excess carrier should not relieve the primary carrier of its settlement obligations.
Estate of Penn v. Amalgamated General Agencies,
Home contends that despite these general principles, Illinois has manifested a re
*962
luctance to impose this direct duty on a primary carrier, relying heavily on a series of cases in which Illinois courts held that a judgment creditor of the insured may not merely by virtue of that status bring an action against an insurer for failure to settle in good faith.
Scroggins v. Allstate Ins. Co.,
B. Preemption under Section 155 of the Insurance Code
Section 155 provides that
(1) In any action by or against a company wherein there is in issue the liability of a company on a policy or policies of insurance or the amount of the loss payable thereunder, or for an unreasonable delay in settling a claim, and it appears to the court that such action or delay is vexatious or unreasonable ...
Tort actions falling within this provision’s reach are preempted.
See generally Matter of Boughton,
District Judge Milton I. Shadur recently held that “[unreasonable refusals [by the insurer] to settle a claim
against
the insured must be viewed as a type of conduct not covered by Section 155.”
National Union Fire Ins. v. Continental Illinois Corp.,
the damage to the insured is truly direct rather than consequential — it is clearly measurable (in terms of the third party’s excess recovery over the policy limits) and poses no arcane proximate cause issues.
Id. We agree and adopt the holding and reasoning of National Union. Accordingly, we find that § 155 does not preempt Ranger’s claims in Counts II and III.
C. Issues of Fact
Finally, we must determine whether Ranger has presented sufficient evidence from which a trier of fact can conclude that Home breached its duty to undertake settlement negotiations in good faith. For a primary insurer to be found liable for bad faith refusal to settle, an insured (and therefore the excess carrier) must prove that the judgment creditor offered terms of settlement within the policy coverage,
Smiley v. Manchester Ins. & Indem. Co.,
IV.
Home’s Counterclaim
Home’s counterclaim that Ranger is liable for Home’s $500,000 portion of the judgment against Mid States because Ranger refused to settle with ADM just before the appeal presupposes a duty owed by Ranger to Home. We find that the law does not recognize such a duty either under a theory of equitable subrogation or directly. An insurance company as subrogee can bring only those actions which the insured could maintain.
American National Bank & Trust Co. v. Weyerhaeuser Co.,
V.
Conclusion
Ranger has demonstrated on the undisputed facts that Home is responsible for post-judgment interest that has accrued on the entire judgment assessed against Mid States. Ranger has also created an issue of material fact as to whether Home breached its duty of care to Ranger to settle the Hall action within the primary policy limit of $500,000. Ranger had no duty to Home in post-judgment settlement negotiations. Accordingly, Ranger’s motion for summary judgment on Count I is granted, and Home’s cross-motion is denied. Home’s motion for summary judgment on Counts II and III is denied. Ranger’s motion to dismiss the counterclaim is granted. It is so ordered.
Notes
. The clause in River Valley obligated the carrier to pay
all costs taxed against the insured in any such suit and all interest accruing after entry of judgment until the company has paid, tendered or deposited in court such part of the judgment as does not exceed the limit of the company’s liability thereon.
.
In an attempt to circumvent
River Valley,
Home curiously relies on a
pre-River Valley
decision of a lower appellate court,
Watseka v. Bituminous Casualty Corp.,
. In Section IV of this opinion, we assess Home’s counterclaim to conclude that Ranger does not owe this duty to Home.
. Ranger does not even allege whether it has paid the post-judgment interest on its portion of the Mid States judgment or Mid States itself remains liable to ADM for that amount. If the latter, Ranger as subrogee must bring these claims in Mid States’ name.
Pontiac Mut. Country Fire & Lightning Ins. Co. v. Sheibley,
. Home cites to two cases in which the courts expressed a reluctance to recognize this direct duty.
United States Fire Ins. Co. v. Royal Ins. Co.,
. Home contends that this offer may have been on the table for only a short period of time, possibly only a day, and that Hall later demanded more. This argument is more appropriately *963 made to the trier of fact and does not warrant the entry of judgment against Ranger at this stage of the litigation.
. Home relies on a series of cases in which the courts held that certain conduct by the judgment creditor may excuse the primary carrier's failure to tender.
Casciola v. Gardner,