SACRAMENTO – A Dallas company alleges its insurer has not paid for legal bills resulting from an incident in Bakersfield.
Paramount Petroleum Corp. filed a complaint on Nov. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. alleging breach of contract and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Nov. 30, 2011, it was held liable for an explosion and fire that occurred inside one of its storage tanks in Bakersfield that injured one employee of KM Industrial that the plaintiff contracted for cleaning services. It alleges the defendant took six months before acknowledging that it owed plaintiff a duty to defend and that starting in February 2015, plaintiff began to submit to defendant for payment the monthly invoices of its defense counsel, Cozen & O'Connor. The plaintiff alleges these invoices remain unpaid to date.
The plaintiff holds Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to respond to correspondence from plaintiff's counsel demanding payment of defense fees and costs, and breached its duty to defend by failing to pay any of the fees and costs of plaintiff's defense counsel.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendant, damages, attorney's fees, interest, costs, expenses of suit and further relief as the court deems just. It is represented by Gary W. Osborne and Dominic S. Nesbitt of Osborne & Nesbitt LLP in San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California Case number 1:16-at-00936