Ruggeri Parks Weinberg Secures Summary Judgment that Crum Owes Contract Liability Coverage

October 3, 2023

On September 26, 2023, Ruggeri Parks Weinberg obtained summary judgment that Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company is liable for a workers’ compensation claim brought against Great American Alliance Insurance Company and its insured, Stafford Transport of Michigan, under Crum’s contract liability and employers’ liability policy in the case captioned Stafford Transport of Michigan, Inc., and Great American Alliance Ins. Co. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Ins. Co., No. 1:21-cv-05329-MLB (N.D. Ga. Sept. 26, 2023).  In reaching that result, the Court analyzed how Stafford’s workers compensation and contract liability policies fit together and rejected Crum’s argument that its contract liability policy provides limited excess coverage.  Instead, the Court engaged in a grammatical close reading of Crum’s policy and held that Crum owes unlimited, first-dollar coverage for the underlying workers’ compensation claim.  The Court’s decision, which has been covered in Law360, closely tracks the arguments made by Jim Ruggeri and Myles Morrison.