“If contractual language is clear and explicit, it governs.” (internal quotation marks omitted)
How later courts described this case
- “If contractual language is clear and explicit, it governs.” (internal quotation marks omitted)
- interpreting a nonstandard excess third party liability policy
- “ ‘damages’ has legally and traditionally always been understood as limited to money ordered by a court”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
KENNARD, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
In my dissenting opinion in Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London v. Superior Court (2001) 24 Cal.4th 945, 975 [ 103 Cal.Rptr.2d 672 , 16 P.3d 94 ], I explained why, in my view, the word “damages” in a standard comprehensive general liability insurance policy’s indemnity provision does not refer only to judgments rendered in judicial proceedings but includes also the costs of complying with an administrative order to mitigate and remediate the effects of environmental pollution. Although the policies at issue here are excess/umbrella policies rather than comprehensive general liabilities policies, that difference is not material to the issue presented here. Therefore, unlike the plurality, I would not limit the word “damages” in the indemnity provisions of these policies to money ordered by a court. Instead, I would hold that it includes expenses that the County of San Diego incurred to comply with the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s cleanup and abatement order.
*427 I agree with the plurality, however, that the insurer was not obligated to indemnify the county for its costs of settling the claims of adjoining property owners, in the absence of the insurer’s consent to the settlements, at least to the extent those costs were not mandated by any administrative order.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied October 26, 2005. Kennard, 1, and Werdegar, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.