Comcast Sues 2 Insurers After It's Named in Negligence Case Over Damaged Sewer Pipe

Two insurance companies must defend and indemnify Comcast for all liability arising from a lawsuit involving alleged property damage a subcontractor caused in February 2019, said Comcast's breach-of-contract complaint Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-22284) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale.

Comcast and general contractor CCU entered into a preferred construction agreement in January 2019 for work CCU would perform “from time to time” on the plaintiff's behalf, said the complaint. Under the agreement, CCU was required to obtain and maintain insurance, including commercial general liability (CGL) insurance with limits of no less than $1 million, plus umbrella excess liability insurance with limits of no less than $5 million, “naming Comcast as an additional insured,” the complaint said. The defendant agreed that each of the liability insurance policies would extend to Comcast and that no policy would be limited to liability arising from the negligence of CCU or any subcontractor, the complaint said.

The two companies agreed that CCU would install broadband cable in Florida; CCU then subcontracted the project to D&M Trenching for the work, said the complaint. The next month, while performing the work contracted by CCU, D&M allegedly damaged a sewer pipe, and Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department filed a negligence suit that triggered Comcast as an “additional insured” under the CGL policy Liberty Insurance sold to CCU and under the umbrella policy sold by North River Insurance to CCU, said the complaint.

As a result, Comcast seeks a declaration that Liberty must indemnify and defend it for all liability arising out of the alleged damage to Miami-Dade’s underground pipe, plus damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, and all other damages resulting from Liberty’s “improper refusal to honor its coverage obligations,” the complaint said. Comcast also seeks a declaration that that North River’s coverage obligations to Comcast in the Miami-Dade action under the umbrella policy “are triggered upon exhaustion of” the primary policy, it said.

In the alternative, without waiving additional insured claims against Liberty and North River, “if Comcast is not an additional insured” under either policy, or if Comcast is “not afforded the same coverage that is offered to CCU as the named insured under the policies,” then “CCU breached its contractual obligations to secure liability insurance coverage for the defense and indemnity of Comcast as an additional insured,” asserted the complaint. In that case, Comcast seeks a declaration that “CCU breached its contractual obligations to make Comcast an additional insured on its respective liability insurance policies and otherwise secure coverage for defense and indemnity of Comcast under CCU’s contracts with Liberty and North River,” it said.

Miami-Dade sued D&M and Comcast for negligence in November 2022 in Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County in Miami-Dade County v. D&M Trenching Corp. and Comcast ABB Management, LLC (docket 2022-0222735). The complaint alleges that D&M, while acting as an agent and subcontractor of CCU, damaged “force mains while replacing a new fiber optic cable line for Comcast,” said Comcast’s Thursday complaint. Miami-Dade’s 2022 complaint also alleges that D&M damaged Miami-Dade County’s water and sewer distribution system and caused damages of approximately $6 million for costs of labor, parts and repair, and that Comcast is liable for these damages, it said. The claims against Comcast in the Miami-Dade action arise entirely from D&M’s “alleged failure to act with due care, not out of Comcast’s own negligence,” said the broadband provider.