The Travelers Indemnity Company v. State National Insurance Company
The Travelers Indemnity Company v. State National Insurance Company; Markel American Insurance Company
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:23-cv-10866
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 8
In Travelers v. State National, the parties asked Judge McMahon to stay proceedings pending underlying discovery; the provided text shows no ruling.
The Travelers Indemnity Company, State National Insurance Company, and Markel American Insurance Company, as parties to the federal insurance-coverage action; the requested stay would also affect the timing of that case.
What happened
The Travelers Indemnity Company sued State National Insurance Company and Markel American Insurance Company seeking declarations about their duties to defend and indemnify parties in an underlying New York tort case. The insurers jointly asked the federal court to pause the coverage case while discovery continued in that underlying action.
The parties said the underlying case could resolve an important factual issue: whether the alleged event occurred after a written contract between JRM Construction Management, LLC and DAL Electrical Corp. That timing could affect coverage under State National’s policy. The parties also said the underlying court had set further discovery deadlines, including a March 27, 2026 deadline for filing the document that signals discovery is complete.
The provided text is a joint motion, not an order by Judge Colleen McMahon. It requests a stay and, alternatively, extensions of the discovery and pretrial deadlines, but it does not state that the court granted or denied either request.
The detailed version
- The Travelers Indemnity Company v. State National Insurance Company · No. 1:23-cv-10866
- Colleen McMahon
- Sept. 30, 2025
Nature of the Filing
The provided document is a joint motion to stay proceedings, filed by The Travelers Indemnity Company, State National Insurance Company, and Markel American Insurance Company. It is not a decision or order resolving that motion.
Background
Travelers brought this declaratory judgment action seeking rulings about insurance coverage for an underlying tort action, identified in the motion as Timothy Spaun v. Rockefeller Group et al., pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County. Travelers seeks declarations that State National must defend and indemnify JRM Construction Management, LLC; the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball doing business as Major League Baseball; MLB Advanced Media, LP; Rockefeller Group; and Rockefeller Center North, Inc. Travelers also seeks a declaration that Markel must provide coverage after applicable underlying insurance limits are exhausted.
The motion states that State National and Markel denied the material allegations in Travelers’ complaint. State National issued a commercial general liability policy to DAL Electrical Corp. for the period February 1, 2019, to February 1, 2020. Markel issued DAL an excess insurance policy for the same period. According to the motion, the relevant additional-insured provision in the State National policy applies when the insured agreed by written contract to provide coverage and applies only to operations performed by or on behalf of DAL and occurrences after the written contract was made.
Reason for the Requested Stay
The parties identify a factual dispute about whether the alleged occurrence happened after a written contract between JRM and DAL. They state that discovery in the underlying action is important to resolving that issue. JRM’s deposition occurred on November 5, 2024. DAL’s deposition was postponed after counsel for one party contracted COVID-19, was rescheduled for March 31, 2025, and did not proceed on that date. The motion also states that DAL filed a third-party complaint against Adria Industrial Piping LTD on March 26, 2025, further delaying discovery.
The parties rely on a July 22, 2025 status conference order from the underlying state-court action. They state that the order required DAL’s deposition to occur by January 15, 2026 and set March 27, 2026 as the deadline for filing the Note of Issue, which the motion describes as signifying completion of discovery. The motion argues that completing discovery in the underlying action would provide information critical to deciding the federal insurance-coverage dispute and would promote efficient use of the court’s and the parties’ resources.
Relief Requested
The parties jointly ask Judge McMahon to stay this action until discovery in the underlying action is complete. Alternatively, they ask the court to extend discovery in this action until March 27, 2026, and to extend the pretrial-order and summary-judgment deadline until April 27, 2026.
Disposition
The provided text does not include a ruling on the joint motion. It therefore does not establish that the motion was granted, denied, or otherwise resolved.
Read the full 8-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.