Warehouse Liability Insurance

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: PQ Corporation v. Lexington Insurance Company

Case No.: 16-3280

Officials: ROVNER, WILLIAMS, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Warehouse Liability Insurance

This appeal presents a dispute over warehouse liability insurance. Defendant Lexington Insurance Company denied a claim by its insured, Double D Warehouse, LLC, for coverage of Double D’s liability to customers for contamination of warehoused products. One basis for denial was that Double D failed to document its warehousing transactions with warehouse receipts, storage agreements, or rate quotations, as required by the applicable insurance policies. Litigation ensued. Plaintiff PQ Corporation was a customer of Double D whose products were damaged while warehoused there. PQ is now the assignee of Double D’s pol‐ icy rights, having settled its own case against Double D by stepping into Double D’s shoes to try to collect on Lexington’s insurance policies. PQ argued in essence that even though Double D had not documented its warehousing transaction in one of the ways specified in the insurance policies, there were pragmatic reasons to excuse strict compliance with those terms. The district court, however, granted summary judgment in favor of Lexington, enforcing the documentation requirement in the policy. We affirm.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.