Wallman v. Suddock 11/17/11 CA2/4

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State: California

Court: California Eastern District Court

Docket No: B224601

Case Date: 11/17/2011

Plaintiff: Wallman

Defendant: Suddock 11/17/11 CA2/4

Preview:Filed 11/17/11

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION FOUR

BARRY WALLMAN et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. BENJAMIN SUDDOCK etc., et al., Defendants and Respondents.

B224601 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC373612)

APPEAL from a judgment and orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Helen I. Bendix, Judge. Affirmed. Radcliff & Saiki and Eric Saiki for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley & Jennett, Timothy W. Kenna, and Karen E. Jung for Defendant and Respondent Benjamin Suddock, doing business as Suddock Insurance Agency. Selman Breitman, Neil Selman, and Rachel E. Hobbs for Defendant and Respondent American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Company.

Plaintiffs/appellants appeal the denial of their motions for summary judgment and the grant of defendants/respondents motions for summary judgment. We conclude that defendants were entitled to summary judgment, and thus we affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs Barry Wallman, Stan Wallman, and Nancy Wallman (the Wallmans) are general partners of plaintiff Sea Val Enterprises, a general partnership that owns interests in real property. Former plaintiff RTG Investments, Inc. (RTG) is a California corporation, of which Barry Wallman is a principal. Dan Wallman, not a party to this action, is Barry Wallmans brother and Stan Wallmans son. Defendant American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Company (American Guarantee) is an insurance company that insured apartment buildings owned by some of the plaintiffs. Defendant Benjamin Suddock, doing business as Suddock Insurance Agency (Suddock), is an insurance agent who procured the American Guarantee policies.

I.

Underlying Facts A. The Ingraham Property

In 1994, the Wallmans owned an apartment building at 1325 Ingraham Street in Los Angeles (the Ingraham property). From December 4, 1993, to December 4, 1994, the Ingraham property was insured by Crusader Insurance Company (Crusader). The Crusader policy provided bodily injury liability coverage of $500,000 per occurrence "arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the insured premises." In February 1994, a child named Anthony Rodriguez fell from a third story window of the Ingraham property and suffered a serious head injury. The Wallmans sold the Ingraham property in August 2001.

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B.

The Formation of RTG

In 2004, some of the Wallmans formed RTG. RTG became the owner of at least 23 separate limited liability corporations (LLCs), each of which owned a piece of real property. None of the LLCs owned the Ingraham property. RTG's Acquisition of Business Owner's Liability Insurance Through Capital Insurance Group In 2004, RTG retained Suddock to obtain primary insurance coverage for the 23 LLCs and the real property they owned. Suddock obtained business owners liability coverage for the LLCs and properties through the Capital Insurance Group (Capital). Capital issued separate policies to each LLC and its property for the policy period July 15, 2005, to July 15, 2006 (the Capital policies). The Capital policies provided coverage for, among other things, "those sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of ,,bodily injury [or] property damage . . . to which this insurance applies. . . . [

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