Columbus Mckinnon Corp. v. Travelers Indem. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 September 2018 |
| Docket Number | 15 Civ. 5088 (VM) |
| Citation | 336 F.Supp.3d 231 |
| Parties | COLUMBUS MCKINNON CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. The TRAVELERS INDEMNITY COMPANY, et al., Defendants. The Travelers Indemnity Company, Third-Party Plaintiff, v. Sentry Insurance A Mutual Company, et al., Third-Party Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
David A. Luttinger, Jr., Russell Matthew Squire, Covington & Burling LLP, Ariane Sophie Baczynski, Nicholas Schretzman, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiff.
Lloyd Andrew Gura, Eric J. Voigt, Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass, New York, NY, Pamela J. Minetto, Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP, Florham Park, NJ, for Defendants.
Jeffrey S. Raskin, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, San Francisco, CA, Jeffrey W. Moss, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Boston, MA, for Plaintiff/Third-Party Defendants.
Stephen V. Gimigliano, John Maloney, Juliette J. Song, Gimigliano Mauriello & Maloney, P.A., Christopher Kiyoung Kim, Graham Curtin, P.A., Morristown, NJ, for Defendants/Third-Party Plaintiff.
DECISION AND ORDER
Plaintiff Columbus McKinnon Corporation ("Columbus McKinnon" or "Plaintiff") brought this action against defendants The Travelers Indemnity Company ("Travelers") and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company ("Liberty Mutual," and together with Travelers, "Defendants"), alleging that insurance policies issued to Columbus McKinnon by Travelers and Liberty Mutual obligate them to defend and indemnify Columbus McKinnon regarding thousands of personal injury lawsuits filed against Columbus McKinnon. (See Dkt. No. 1.)
By Order dated December 7, 2017 (Dkt. No. 159), the Court referred several dispositive motions to Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman. Specifically, the Court referred Plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment regarding Defendants' duty to defend ("Plaintiff's Motion," Dkt. No. 114) and Defendants' five cross-motions for partial summary judgment regarding the duty to defend (Dkt. No. 132), allocation of defense costs (Dkt. No. 136), Plaintiff's breach of the cooperation and voluntary payments provisions (Dkt. No. 128), defense rates (Dkt. No. 135), and the duty to indemnify (Dkt. No. 130) (collectively, "Defendants' Cross-Motions").
On August 10, 2018, Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman issued a Report and Recommendation, a copy of which is attached and incorporated herein, recommending that Plaintiff's Motion be granted in part and denied in part. (See"Report," Dkt. No. 168 at 269.) The Report further recommended that Defendants' Cross-Motions be resolved as follows: the motion regarding the duty to defend be granted in part and denied in part; the motion regarding allocation of defense costs be granted in part and denied in part; the motion regarding Plaintiff's breach of the cooperation and voluntary payments provisions be denied; the motion regarding defense rates be denied; and the motion regarding the duty to indemnify be granted in part and denied in part. (See id. at 269–70.)
On September 7, 2018, Columbus McKinnon, Travelers, and Liberty Mutual filed timely objections to the Report and Recommendation, and challenged its findings and conclusions on various grounds. (See"September 7 Objections," Dkt. Nos. 178, 179, 180.) On September 21, 2018, Columbus McKinnon, Travelers, and Liberty Mutual filed timely responses to the September 7 Objections. (See Dkt. Nos. 185, 186, 189.)
For the reasons stated below, the Court adopts the recommendations of the Report in their entirety.
A district court evaluating a magistrate judge's report may adopt those portions of the report to which no "specific written objection" is made, as long as the factual and legal bases supporting the findings and conclusions set forth in those sections are not clearly erroneous or contrary to law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b) ; see also Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 149, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985). However, "[w]hen a timely and specific objection has been made, the court is obligated to review the contested issues de novo." Fischer v. Forrest, 286 F.Supp.3d 590, 600-01 (S.D.N.Y. 2018) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b) and Hynes v. Squillace, 143 F.3d 653, 656 (2d Cir. 1998) ). A district court is not required to review any portion of a magistrate judge's report that is not the subject of an objection. See Thomas, 474 U.S. at 149, 106 S.Ct. 466. Because motions for summary judgment require a final determination of the parties' claims, a district court's review of a magistrate judge's determination of such a motion should be evaluated under the de novo standard applicable to dispositive matters under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(b), as opposed to the clearly erroneous or contrary to law standard applicable to a magistrate judge's ruling as to non-dispositive matters under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 72(a). A district judge may accept, set aside, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings and recommendations of the magistrate judge. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b).
Upon a de novo review of the full factual record in this litigation, including the pleadings and the parties' respective papers submitted in connection with the underlying motions and in this proceeding, as well as the Report and applicable legal authorities, the Court reaches the same conclusions as Magistrate Judge Freeman. The Court further concludes that the findings, reasoning, and legal support for the recommendations made in the Report are consistent with applicable law as set forth in the cases and statutes relied upon therein, and are thus warranted. Accordingly, for substantially the reasons set forth in Magistrate Judge Freeman's thorough and detailed Report, the Court adopts in their entirety the Report's factual and legal analyses and determinations, as well as its substantive recommendations, as the Court's ruling on Plaintiff's Motion (Dkt. No. 114) and Defendants' Cross-Motions (Dkt. Nos. 128, 130, 132, 135, 136).
For the reasons discussed above, it is hereby
ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman dated August 10, 2018 (Dkt. No. 168) is adopted in its entirety, and the objections of Plaintiff Columbus McKinnon Corporation, Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff The Travelers Indemnity Company, and Defendant Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (Dkt. Nos. 178, 179, 180) are DENIED. It is further
ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment (Dkt. No. 114) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART ; and it is further
ORDERED that Defendants' cross-motion for partial summary judgment regarding the duty to defend (Dkt. No. 132) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART ; and it is further
ORDERED that Defendants' cross-motion for partial summary judgment regarding allocation of defense costs (Dkt. No. 136) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART ; and it is further
ORDERED that Defendants' cross-motion for partial summary judgment regarding Plaintiff's breach of the cooperation and voluntary payments provisions (Dkt. No. 128) is DENIED ; and it is further
ORDERED that Liberty Mutual's cross-motion for partial summary judgment regarding defense rates (Dkt. No. 135) is DENIED ; and it is finally
ORDERED that Defendants' cross-motion for partial summary judgment regarding the duty to indemnify (Dkt. No. 130) is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.
SO ORDERED .
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
In this insurance coverage action, plaintiff Columbus McKinnon Corporation ("Plaintiff") is seeking a declaration that its insurers, defendants Travelers Indemnity Company ("Travelers") and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company ("Liberty Mutual") (together, the "Insurers" or "Defendants") breached their duties to defend and indemnify Plaintiff in connection with numerous product liability claims (, bodily injury claims resulting from asbestos exposure) that have been asserted against Plaintiff in several jurisdictions across the United States (the "Underlying Asbestos Claims" or the "Claims"). On the claims raised in its Complaint, Plaintiff is also seeking reimbursement for the costs it incurred, both to defend against the Underlying Asbestos Claims and to settle certain of them, after Defendants allegedly breached their obligations.
Currently before this Court, pursuant to a reference to report and recommend on dispositive motions, are (1) a motion by Plaintiff seeking partial summary judgment in its favor on the issue of whether Defendants have a duty to provide Plaintiff with a complete defense on any pending Underlying Asbestos Claims and any similar claims that may be asserted in the future (Dkt. 114), and (2) five separate cross-motions by Defendants, seeking partial summary judgment in their favor on the issues of (a) whether the Claims give rise to a duty to defend at all (Dkt. 132); (b) whether, assuming a defense obligation, any defense costs should be allocated pro rata with Plaintiff, based on the fact that Plaintiff was self-insured for a period of time relevant to the Claims (Dkt. 136); (b) whether any duty to defend and/or indemnify has been vitiated by Plaintiff's purported lack of cooperation in its defense by the Insurers, and/or by Plaintiff's voluntary payments to resolve some of the Claims (Dkt. 128); (d) whether the attorneys' fees charged to Plaintiff by the law firm that it retained to defend against the Claims (after Defendants' allegedly breached their duty to defend) are based on billing rates that are unreasonably high as a matter of law, such that, if Defendants are required to pay any past-incurred defense costs, Defendants should not have to reimburse Plaintiff at those rates (Dkt. 135); and (e) whether Defendants have any obligation to indemnify Plaintiff on the Underlying Asbestos Claims (Dkt. 130).
In this Report and Recommendation, this Court will address: first, Plaintiff's motion on the duty to defend,...
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