State Auto Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Shores Builders, Inc.

State Auto Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Shores Builders, Inc.

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROSENSTENGEL, Chief Judge:

Pending before the Court is a Motion to Overrule the Blanket Objections of Plaintiff State Auto Property & Casualty Insurance Company ("State Auto") to the Entirety of Defendant's First Requests for Admission and to Compel Adequate Responses to that Discovery (Doc. 55) filed by Defendant Shores Builders, Inc.

This is an action for declaratory judgment filed by State Auto to determine whether it has a duty to defend either Defendant Shores Builders or Defendant Rock Branch Ironworks, Inc., in an underlying state court action (Doc. 23). State Auto issued a policy of insurance to Rock Branch as the named insured [*2]  for the effective policy period of April 17, 2018 to April 17, 2019 (Id. at ¶ 7). Rock Branch entered a Subcontract Agreement with Shores Builders on or about April 25, 2018, for construction and other services (Id. at ¶ 11). As part of that agreement, Rock Branch agreed to name Shores Builders as an additional insured on its State Auto policy and to indemnify Shores Builders in connection with its services (Id. at ¶¶ 12-13).

On September 20, 2018, Matthew Smith, an employee of Rock Branch, was fatally electrocuted while on the job. Smith's survivors subsequently brought suit against Shores Builders and others in the Circuit Court of the 20th Judicial Circuit, Randolph County, Illinois (Id. at ¶ 14). The state court lawsuit alleges Shores Builders was negligent on several grounds, including that it failed to ensure Rock Branch, its subcontractor, was competent to perform the work it was hired to perform and that Shores Builders failed to inspect the equipment that Rock Branch used on the project (Id. at ¶ 15).

After tendering its defense in the state court action to its own liability insurer, Shores Builders tendered its defense to State Auto, which State Auto refused to accept (Id. [*3]  at ¶ 16). Shores Builders then filed a Third-Party Complaint against Rock Branch in the state court action, seeking damages for contribution and breach of contract for failure to procure insurance (Id. at ¶ 17).

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