{"id":899063,"date":"2021-08-24T15:46:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T21:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=899063"},"modified":"2021-08-24T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T21:46:46","slug":"duty-to-defend-insurance-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sarah Odia and Scott Thomas | Payne & Fears<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an insurance recovery case being handled by Payne & Fears partners Scott Thomas and Sarah Odia, an Arizona federal court, applying Nevada law, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend<\/a> its additional-insured homebuilder by refusing to pay more than a proportionate share of the builder\u2019s defense costs based on what NGM called a \u201cdefense-follows-indemnity\u201d formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court rejected NGM\u2019s argument that its duty to defend required it to pay only a small fraction of the builder\u2019s defense costs proportionate to its named insured\u2019s relatively small role in the homeowners\u2019 overall damages; the court correctly applied Nevada law to the effect that if an insurer has a duty to defend any part of a lawsuit, it has a duty to defend the entire lawsuit. This ruling puts to rest the ill-conceived notion that under Nevada law, insurers defending developers and homebuilders as additional insureds under policies issued to subcontractors can get away with anything less than fully defending their additional insureds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court also rejected NGM\u2019s argument that the builder \u201cfailed to mitigate\u201d its damages by not trying to shift NGM\u2019s defense burden to other defending insurers. Instead, the court held that the builder is entitled to recover from NGM all of the builder\u2019s reasonable defense costs and any consequential damages resulting from NGM\u2019s breach \u2013 potentially including its litigation expenses in the recovery action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case is Centex Homes et al. v. NGM Insurance Co., case number 2:19-cv-01392, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (July 9, 2021 Order, ECF No. 195).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Odia and Scott Thomas | Payne & Fears In an insurance recovery case being handled by Payne & Fears partners Scott Thomas and Sarah Odia, an Arizona federal court, applying Nevada law, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder by refusing to pay more than a proportionate… Continue reading Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[9895,11524,57],"class_list":["post-899063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duty-to-defend","tag-advise-consult","tag-defense-follows-indemnity","tag-duty-to-defend-2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\"},\"headline\":\"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Advise & Consult\",\"Defense-Follows-Indemnity\",\"duty to defend\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Duty to Defend\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\",\"name\":\"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Advise & Consult, Inc.\",\"description\":\"Construction Expert Witnesses\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Advise & Consult\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png\",\"width\":162,\"height\":75,\"caption\":\"Advise & Consult\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/adviseconsult\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company-beta\/204526\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MrConstructionExpert\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.expertwitnessinconstruction.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.","description":"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.","og_description":"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/","og_site_name":"Advise & Consult, Inc.","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","article_published_time":"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adviseconsult","twitter_site":"@adviseconsult","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7"},"headline":"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs","datePublished":"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/"},"wordCount":291,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Advise & Consult","Defense-Follows-Indemnity","duty to defend"],"articleSection":["Duty to Defend"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/","name":"Federal Court: Insurer Breaches Duty to Defend By Insisting it Owes Only a \u201cDefense-Follows-Indemnity\u201d Share of Defense Costs - Advise & Consult, Inc.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-08-24T21:46:43+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-24T21:46:46+00:00","description":"Arizona federal court, recently held that NGM Insurance Company breached its duty to defend its additional-insured homebuilder","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-insurance-breach\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/","name":"Advise & Consult, Inc.","description":"Construction Expert Witnesses","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Advise & Consult","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png","width":162,"height":75,"caption":"Advise & Consult"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","https:\/\/x.com\/adviseconsult","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company-beta\/204526\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MrConstructionExpert"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.expertwitnessinconstruction.com"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ztG6-3LT1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899064,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899063\/revisions\/899064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}