Brown v. State Automobile & Casualty Underwriters

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• affirming summary judgment on duty to defend but reversing summary judgment on duty to indemnify where coverage turned on an underlying fact issue
• if claim is arguably within coverage \insurer should provide the defense while reserving its right to contest coverage based on the facts developed at trial\
• resolution of issue in prior action must have been \necessary and essential\ to preclude relitigation
• duty to defend triggered when any part of the claim arguably falls within coverage of policy
• “The duty to defend is distinct from and broader in scope than the duty to indemnify . . . .”
• “The district court properly awarded the insured the costs and attorney’s fees incurred in his defense of the [underlying] action because the insurer breached its duty to defend him.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).