A federal appeals court reversed a lower court Tuesday and held an insurer must defend a roofing manufacturer in litigation in which the company’s roof membrane system allegedly caused additional damage to a Bronx high school.
The litigation stems from an underlying lawsuit filed by the New York Archdiocese and other plaintiffs against parties including Dallas-based Siplast Inc., which had sold a roof membrane system to a Bronx high school in 2012, according to the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in Siplast Inc. v. Employers Mutual Casualty Company. Siplast provided a 20-year guarantee for the work, the ruling said.
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Siplast attorney Steven J. Pudell, a managing shareholder with Anderson Kill P.C. in Newark, New Jersey, said in a statement, “We are pleased that the 5th Circuit recognized that under Texas law the duty to defend must be construed broadly and plainly extended to this suit seeking damages against Siplast.”
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