Opinion ID: 1136740
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Safety and Ranger: The Excess Insurers

Text: Both Safety and Ranger sold Alabama Plating commercial umbrella (excess) liability insurance policies. Ranger sold Alabama Plating one policy covering December 1978 to December 1979; Safety sold Alabama Plating three policies covering February 1983 to February 1986. Coverage under such policies is invoked when the limits of liability have been reached in the underlying primary insurance, which, in this case, is USF & G's CGL policies. Alabama Plating asserted both breach of contract and bad faith claims against Safety and Ranger. In response, Safety and Ranger assert many of the same reasons used by USF & G as defenses for not providing insurance coverage to Alabama Plating. For the reasons discussed above, we find no merit to those defenses. However, we note that questions of fact remain as to whether any of the occurrences upon which Alabama Plating's claims are based occurred during the periods covered by Safety and Ranger's policies. In any event, the trial court erred in entering the summary judgments on the breach of contract claims against Safety and Ranger.