Metawave v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Woodruff Sawyer & Co.
Published: Jul. 16, 2005 | Result Date: Apr. 29, 2005 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: 415560 Verdict – $0
Judge
Court
San Francisco Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Philip L. Pillsbury Jr.
(Pillsbury & Coleman LLP)
Defendant
Lawrence M. Cirelli
(Hanson Bridgett LLP)
Experts
Plaintiff
Eric Sullivan
(technical)
John Dempsey
(technical)
Defendant
Mark R. Newton
(technical)
Donald Conway
(technical)
Andrew Dymond
(technical)
Facts
The subject suit related to the plaintiff company's destruction by fire of its Taiwan manufacturing facility in May 2001. The plaintiff, a telecommunications company was in bankruptcy. The plaintiff sued its insurer, St. Paul Fire Insurance Company and its broker, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. and at trial sought $18 million in policy benefits, prejudgment interest and as to St. Paul, it sought damages for its bad faith conduct in refusing to pay the claim. The trial was phased. It began on Nov. 8, 2004 and concluded on April 29, 2005. Initially, the plaintiff tried the policy interpretation issue as to applicability of the domestic policy and its limits to the Taiwan loss. The court ruled in favor of St. Paul. Next, the plaintiff tried its reformation claim and the court once again ruled in favor of St. Paul.
Settlement Discussions
St. Paul Fire Insurance made a C.C.P. Section 998 offer of $3.1 million. Woodruff Sawyer made a C.C.P. Section 998 offer of $50,000.
Result
The jury found in favor of both defendants. The jury found that while St. Paul did not pay full benefits due under the policy that the plaintiff had breached the policy's cooperation clause and was therefore not entitled to further payment. The jury also found that Woodruff-Sawyer was not professionally negligent in failing to obtain a global policy with global interruption limits because it had never agreed to obtain such coverage and that it did not misrepresent that the domestic policy's limits would apply to a foreign loss.
Other Information
The plaintiff's claim for punitive damages was stricken prior to trial due to lack of evidence upon a motion for summary adjudication by St. Paul.
Deliberation
eight hours
Length
70 hours
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