Case ID: f-appx_296/html/0251-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "GARTH, Circuit Judge:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LUMBERMENS MUTUAL CASUALTY COMPANY, Appellant, v. ERIE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.
    No. 07-4028.
    United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
    Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) Sept. 23, 2008.
    Opinion Filed: Oct. 10, 2008.
    
      Phillip J. Meyer, Richard W. Yost, Yost & Tretta, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant.
    H. Joseph Byron, III, McCormick & Priore, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee.
    Before: BARRY, AMBRO and GARTH, Circuit Judges.
   OPINION

GARTH, Circuit Judge:

Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company brought this declaratory judgment action against Erie Insurance Exchange to obtain a determination of whether it has an obligation to defend or indemnify Czop/Specter, Inc. in a personal injury action that Donald Cuthbertson, Jr., brought against Czop and others. On October 4, 2007, 2007 WL 2916172, the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Erie and against Lumbermens. Our review is plenary. Our jurisdiction stems from a final order. 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

Czop was the contractor responsible for performing roadside inspection services on behalf of the Department of Transportation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (“PennDOT”). It held two insurance policies: one payable by Erie under policy number Q48 0150571 A, and one payable by Lumbermens under policy number QL016315-00. The Erie policy was a general liability policy that excluded coverage of claims arising from “service[s] of a professional nature,” including “supervisory, inspection, or engineering services.” The Lumbermens policy, conversely, provided coverage only for claims regarding “professional services,” which was defined to include “those services that the [i]nsured is legally qualified to perform for others in the [ijnsured’s capacity as an architect, engineer, land surveyor, landscape architect, construction manager or as defined by endorsement to the policy.”

Lumbermens now claims it should not have to pay for Czop’s liability because the task of inspecting and maintaining roadside safety does not qualify as a “professional service.” This argument has no merit.

David Riley, the employee hired by Czop to conduct the roadside inspections, performed specialized tasks. See Harad v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 839 F.2d 979, 984 (3d Cir.1988). He conducted inspections and made arrangements for other contractors to perform any necessary labor; he did not clear the roads himself. Lumbermens’s efforts to minimize Riley’s education, training, and job function do not diminish the fact that the services he performed were professional services.

Accordingly, we «411 affirm the District Court’s order. 
      
      . Erie is incorrectly identified as “Erie Insurance Company” in the caption.
     
      
      . Cuthbertson was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Michael Donovan, who collided with another vehicle when he did not see “an obstructed and otherwise difficult to observe stop sign ... due to a combination of factors, including tree branches, vegetation, bushes, brush and grass which obstructed visibility of eastbound drivers west of the stop sign.” Appellant’s Br. 2-3.