Aetna Life and Casualty Co. v. McCabe

In Aetna Life and Casualty Co. v. McCabe, 556 F.Supp. 1342 (E.D.Pa.1983), Judge Shapiro held that an insurance company that had defended its insured in the underlying suit was not estopped from later raising an issue (intentionality) that it did not have the opportunity to raise in the first suit because raising that issue would have been adverse to the interests of the insured. The Aetna opinion draws a clear distinction between issues that the insurer had an opportunity to raise earlier and those that it did not have an opportunity to raise, for Judge Shapiro held that the insurer was precluded from relitigating another issue (whether the tort "arose out of" the professional services of the insured physician) that it had an interest in raising in the underlying suit. Id. at 1351.