Seattle Times Company v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Company et al

Filing 195

MINUTE ORDER denying Defendant Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America's 194 Motion for Reconsideration: Having not taken advantage of the opportunity to articulate its position, defendant will not now be heard to complain about the Court's analysis. Moreover, defendant has failed to establish any "manifest error" in the Court's ruling. Authorized by Judge Thomas S. Zilly.(MW)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
AT SEATTLE

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SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY,

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Plaintiff,
v.
TRAVELERS CASUALTY AND
SURETY COMPANY (as successor-ininterest to Aetna Casualty and Surety
Company),

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MINUTE ORDER

Defendant.

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C13-1463 TSZ

The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable
Thomas S. Zilly, United States District Judge:
(1)
Defendant’s motion for reconsideration, docket no. 194, is DENIED.
Before the Order dated November 12, 2019, docket no. 193, was entered, all parties,
including defendant, were given a chance to review and object to or comment on a draft
of such order. See Minute Order at ¶ 1 (docket no. 189). Having not taken advantage of
the opportunity to articulate its position, defendant will not now be heard to complain
about the Court’s analysis. See Local Civil Rule 7(h) (requiring that parties bring their
arguments to the Court’s attention with “reasonable diligence”). Moreover, defendant
has failed to establish any “manifest error” in the Court’s ruling. See id. Contrary to
defendant’s assertion, to evaluate the reasonableness of the then-proposed settlement
between General Insurance Company of America (“General”) and Seattle Times
Company, the Court was required to consider how the losses at issue would be allocated
among the various insurance policies. See Order at 9:6-8 (docket no. 193). In its motion
for reconsideration, defendant references only one component of the Court’s hypothetical
apportionments, namely as set forth in Table 1 on Page 10 of the Order, contending that

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MINUTE ORDER - 1

1 the Court erroneously included “the General excess policy in an equal contribution with
the underlying General primary policy, before the primary policy is exhausted.” See
2 Mot. at 2 (docket no. 194). Defendant misunderstands. Table 1 reflects that, of the
$429,211.777 in soil remediation expenses owed by Seattle Times Company pursuant to
3 a contract, the first $100,000 would exhaust the balance of General’s primary policy. As
a result, the remaining amount would be split evenly among General’s excess policy for
4 1984-1985 and defendant’s primary policy for 1985-1986, assuming that coverage was
owed, an issue about which the Court expressly reserved judgment.
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(2)
The Clerk is directed to send a copy of this Minute Order to all counsel of
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Dated this 2nd day of December, 2019.

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William M. McCool
Clerk

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s/Karen Dews
Deputy Clerk

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MINUTE ORDER - 2