August 1, 2012

San Francisco Managing Partner Linda Wendell Hsu and Associate Anet Castro recently obtained a judgment in favor of their clients, an insurance company and its independent adjuster, for claims of breach of insurance contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by not paying a claim for water damage to the claimants' office equipment in the insured's office building.  However, the claimants were not the insureds; the landlord was the insured.  The court agreed that plaintiffs failed to allege, and could not allege, that they were insureds, had an assignment of rights, or were third party beneficiaries under the policy.  Moreover, the court agreed that the claimants, as a matter of law, had no claim against the independent adjuster.