State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Walton

The primary issue in this case is whether the language in a homeowner’s liability insurance policy requires an additional insured to give the insurance company notice of an “accident or occurrence.”

On November 28, 1985, about 6:30 p.m., four teenagers, Angela White, Wade Walton, Mike Trevillian, and Ronnie Alan Cox, entered a partially completed house in Pittsylvania County owned by William E. Bumpass and Imogene E. Bumpass. After the teenagers left, a fire destroyed the house and its contents.

Some time later, the Cincinnati Insurance Company (Cincinnati), the property damage insurance…