Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Superior Court

Opinion

PANELLI, J.

This declaratory relief action presents issues relating to the scope of a liability insurer’s duty to defend its insured in an underlying third party lawsuit. The parties before us—carriers who issued comprehensive general liability (CGL) policies and the pesticide manufacturer to which the policies were sold—disagree on the proper use of extrinsic evidence in determining the scope of the defense duty and the nature of the parties’ respective burdens on motions for summary adjudication of defense obligations. We conclude that evidence extrinsic to the underlying complaint…