Government Employees Insurance v. Herring

Plaintiff, an insurance company, brought a declaratory judgment proceeding to determine whether it was required by its liability policy to defend its insured, the defendant Herring, in an action brought against him by the other defendant, Shasky. Plaintiff contended it was relieved from its obligation to defend Herring because he had failed to give it notice of the accident with Shasky “as soon as practicable” as required by the policy. Both defendants filed substantially identical answers, which denied failure to give notice and pleaded two affirmative defenses. The first affirmative defense…