Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Penske Truck Leasing, Co.

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that in contractual duty-to-defend cases, as in insurance cases, the duty to defend must be determined at the beginning of the suit on the pleadings
• noting that gross negligence has been defined as “[i]ndifference to a present legal duty and utter forgetfulness of legal obligations so far as other persons may be affected”
• defining gross negligence as “[i]ndifference to a present legal duty and utter forgetfulness of legal obligations so far as other persons may be affected”
• applying the complaint allegation rule in the identical context of a non-insurance indemnity contract; “The duty to defend, to have any effect at all, must be determined when the complaint is filed.”
• “If a complaint alleges claims that fall within the coverage of the indemnity provision, then, according to the complaint allegation rule, the duty to defend begins.”
• “[Neither willful misconduct nor gross negligence are synonymous with ordinary negligence.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).