Regal Constr. Corp. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA

In Regal Constr. Corp. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, 15 NY3d 34 [2010] the Court found a sufficient causal connection to trigger coverage. In that case, URS Corporation (URS) was hired as a construction manager for a renovation project at Rikers Island (Regal Constr. Corp., 15 NY3d at 36). URS hired the plaintiff Regal Construction Corporation (Regal) as a prime contractor to perform general construction work, including demolition and renovation (id.). During the course of the project, Regal's project manager slipped on a freshly painted metal floor joist and fell (id.). The project manager claimed that an unnamed person from URS told him that URS employees had painted the joist (id. at 37). Regal procured an insurance policy from the plaintiff Insurance Corporation of New York (INSCORP) naming URS as an additional insured "only with respect to liability arising out of Regal's ongoing operations performed for URS" (id. at 36). The Court held that: "although Regal and INSCORP contend that LeClair's injury did not arise out from Regal's demolition and renovation operations performed for URS, but that it was URS employees who painted the joist on which LeClair slipped, the focus of the inquiry 'is not on the precise cause of the accident but the general nature of the operation in the course of which the injury was sustained' (Worth, 10 NY3d at 416 [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). Accordingly, the injury 'ar[ose] out of' Regal's operations notwithstanding URS's alleged negligence, and fell within the scope of the additional insured clause of the insurance policy" (id. at 38).