Best pull quote:  “Certainly from a pragmatic viewpoint, it is quite true that in many of the liability insurance cases, the most real dispute is between the injured third party and the insurance company, not between the injured and an oftentimes impecunious insured.” Federal Kemper Ins. Co. v. Rauscher, 807 F.2d 345, 354 (3d Cir. 1986) (quoting 6A J. Moore, Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 57.19)
 

Summary courtesy of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Where insurer brought a declaratory relief action against insured, contending it had no obligation to defend or indemnify against a claim that insured’s employee damaged airline’s airplane because insured failed to give proper notice of the claim, intervening airline had standing to appeal district court’s grant of default judgment in favor of insurer, which court based on default issued against insured for repeatedly failing to appear for deposition. Airline was entitled to defend against action in its own right, and district court should not have entered a default judgment in the action against all defendants based on insured’s failure to appear. 

Westchester Fire Insurance Company v. Northwest Airlines, Inc. - filed October 28, 2009  Cite as 07-17383