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Today, the Arizona Court of Appeals vacated a $7,903,494.58 Dram Shop judgment against JAI Dining Services and remanded it for a new trial because the trial judge failed to give an appropriate jury instruction on causation. The plaintiff was rear-ended by a drunk driver and badly injured. Plaintiff sued the driver and JAI where he...

Congratulations to CDS shareholder Gena Sluga on her inclusion in the 2019 AZ Business Leaders feature as one of the Top 5 Insurance Lawyers in AZ. Ms. Sluga is the only female lawyer recognized in the Insurance Law category. The feature is published annually by Arizona Business Magazine and the 2019 leaders were selected from...

Christian, Dichter & Sluga attorney Gena Sluga obtained summary judgment in Arizona Federal District Court for an insurer facing a $1.5 million stipulated judgment in an insurance bad faith action. In Wilshire Insurance Company v. Yager , No. CV-16-00192-TUC-JAS, 2018 WL 5801537 (D. Ariz. Nov. 5, 2018), the auto insurer denied coverage for a car accident because, although the...

The “2018 Women in Law” section of the October 2018 Phoenix edition of Attorney at Law magazine features a spotlight on the Ladder Down program co-founded by CDS attorneys. The Ladder Down program was founded in 2012 and ran for four years in Phoenix with support from the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. The year-long program is...

Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a ruling clarifying the scope of the contractual liability exclusion in a homeowner’s policy. Teufel hired a contractor to build a home but ultimately decided not to live in it and sold it to Cetotor. After the sale, when rockslides damaged the property, Cetotor sued Teufel for breach of...

Homeowners hired a water restoration contractor to repair storm damage. The Work Order Agreement contained an assignment of the homeowners’ benefits and causes of action under any applicable insurance policy. Repair invoices were submitted to Homeowners’ insurer, Farmers, who paid what it determined to be the reasonable value of the services, but less than the...

On May 31, Division 1 of the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected an insured’s argument that five independent acts of negligence causing a single accident entitled the insured to the aggregate claims limit of $2,000,000 rather that the $1,000,000 per occurrence limit of the CGL policy.

Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals decided on May 22nd that an insurer and its wholly owned subsidiary both provided underinsured motorist coverage to their insured under separate policies issued by each company. Hanfelder was injured in a motor vehicle accident. He collected the liability coverage limits from the responsible driver’s insurer and...