Federal Insurance Company v. Mt. Hawley Insurance Company
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:24-cv-01557
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Federal Insurance v. Mt. Hawley: Judge Schofield denied postponing the initial conference because of a planned dismissal motion but rescheduled the conference.
Federal Insurance Company and Mt. Hawley Insurance Company, whose initial pretrial conference and case-management filing deadlines were rescheduled.
What happened
Federal Insurance Company sued Mt. Hawley Insurance Company over insurance coverage for amounts Federal paid in settling an underlying personal-injury case. Mt. Hawley asked to postpone the initial conference while it prepared a motion to dismiss.
Mt. Hawley said Federal’s claim was premature because the underlying case had not yet determined liability and fault. The proposed motion was not decided in this order.
The court denied the application to postpone the conference pending the proposed motion, but separately adjourned the conference to May 15, 2024, and extended the related filing deadline to May 8, 2024. Judge Lorna G. Schofield issued the order.
The detailed version
- Federal Insurance Company v. Mt. Hawley Insurance Company · No. 1:24-cv-01557
- Lorna Schofield
- Apr. 8, 2024
Background
Federal Insurance Company brought this insurance-coverage action against Mt. Hawley Insurance Company. According to Mt. Hawley’s pre-motion letter, Federal seeks a declaration requiring Mt. Hawley to indemnify Federal for a high-low settlement that Federal paid on behalf of W&K and W&M in an underlying personal-injury action. The underlying action involves a worker who allegedly fell from a scaffold. The opinion states that the underlying case remained pending, including issues involving third-party indemnity claims.
The parties had previously litigated a related declaration action concerning defense coverage. That earlier dispute was dismissed after the parties settled the defense claim. The present action concerns indemnification, which is distinct from the settled defense issue.
Proposed Motion
Mt. Hawley stated that it intended to file a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which asks whether a complaint states a legally sufficient claim. Mt. Hawley argued that Federal’s indemnification claim could not proceed until the underlying action determined liability and fault. It also identified additional legal issues that might later require resolution, including a policy exclusion.
Mt. Hawley asked the court to postpone the initial pretrial conference until after its proposed motion to dismiss. The opinion does not decide that motion or the merits of Federal’s insurance-coverage claim.
Court’s Order
Judge Lorna G. Schofield denied the application to adjourn the initial pretrial conference pending the proposed motion to dismiss. The court nevertheless adjourned the conference from April 17, 2024, to May 15, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. The deadline to file the parties’ joint letter and proposed case-management plan, including an update on the underlying action, was extended to May 8, 2024. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the motion at Docket 11.
Classification
This is a procedural order. It addresses scheduling and a proposed motion, not whether either party is entitled to indemnification under the insurance policies.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.