Franklin D. Cordell

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

• Notable Ruling Under Claims-Made-And-Reported Policy – Frank led the GTTC team representing a major Northwest-based hospital system in coverage litigation against Underwriters at Lloyd’s. The case arose out of an $18 million arbitration award against the client, in favor of a surgeon who alleged wrongful termination of his employment. Underwriters had issued the client’s an employment-practices policy, written on a claims-made-and-reported basis. The policyholder inadvertently failed to notify Underwriters of the claim until after the arbitration award. The policyholder’s notice came during the same policy period in which the employment claim was asserted but after the 60-day deadline for notice established by a policy condition. Underwriters denied coverage, contending that Washington’s prejudice rule did not apply where notice is late under claims-made-and-reported policies. The policyholder sued. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rejected Underwriters’ position, holding that because notice came during the policy period, the prejudice rule applied and Underwriters could avoid their coverage obligation only to the extent they could prove that they were prejudiced by the late notice. The parties later reached a confidential settlement.
• GTTC Obtains Coverage for Class Action Against Major e-Retailer – Frank Cordell, Susannah Carr, and Miles Bludorn represented a major publicly traded e-commerce company that was the defendant in a class action brought by certain hotels in California. The hotels alleged that our client engaged in a bait-and-switch marketing scheme that constituted an anti-competitive practice and disparaged the plaintiffs’ businesses. AIG, our client’s professional liability and media liability insurer, denied coverage on a variety of grounds. AIG sued our client, seeing a declaration of no coverage. In October 2020, the federal district court in Seattle ruled for our on the key issues of policy interpretation.
• GTTC Client Prevails on Key Issues in High-Stakes Property Insurance Dispute – Frank Cordell leads the GTTC team representing Ingenco, the operator of a plant that converts landfill gas into utility-quality natural gas, in a long-running and hard-fought litigation against its insurer, ACE American Company, in federal court in Seattle. The litigation arises out of a large property loss suffered at Ingenco’s gas purification plant. The case presents a variety of complex coverage and technical issues. In March 2022, Ingenco prevailed in large part on cross-motions for summary judgment. Ingenco Holdings, LLC v. ACE American Ins. Co., 2022 WL 716880 (W.D. Wash. March 10, 2022). The ruling sets the stage for a jury trial in early 2023.
• Win Against Fireman’s Fund – Frank represented the owner of a waterfront restaurant in Tacoma, Washington, in a coverage dispute arising out of a property loss suffered when a large barge-mounted industrial crane broke loose from its mooring and crashed into the client’s property. The client’s insurer, Fireman’s Fund, denied coverage, relying on a policy exclusion. GTTC sued Fireman’s Fund and promptly prevailed on a motion for summary judgment, defeating all coverage defenses
• Outside-the-playbook approach to major environmental coverage claim – Frank Cordell represented aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas Corporation in its first environmental coverage litigation in the mid-1990s. He resumed that engagement in 2009, when MDC was a subsidiary of The Boeing Company. MDC had incurred substantial liability for the cleanup of numerous manufacturing sites across North America. The company’s resulting coverage claim was one of the largest ever presented to MDC’s principal insurer, Lloyd’s and the London Market. Rather than following the typical “playbook,” in rote fashion, and embarking on a second round of costly coverage litigation, Boeing and Lloyd’s reached a standstill agreement and proceeded to negotiate in a structured, orderly fashion. After five years of hard-fought negotiations, the parties reached a confidential settlement. This is one of dozens of substantial long-tail coverage matters that Frank’s clients have settled on favorable terms without bearing the enormous costs and risks of coverage litigation.
• Coverage counsel to Snohomish County after Oso landslide tragedy – On March 22, 2014 a massive landslide killed 43 people in the Steelhead Haven neighborhood near the community of Oso in Snohomish County, Washington. In the aftermath, victims and their families filed dozens of wrongful death claims against three defendants, including Snohomish County. These claims were consolidated in King County into the State’s largest-ever wrongful death action. Frank Cordell was selected to represent the County as coverage counsel, and, along with Chelsey Mam and Greg Pendleton, currently is prosecuting litigation against the insurers in federal court in Seattle.
• Bad-faith litigation on behalf of a public biopharmaceutical company – In 2009, the CFO of a publicly traded, Seattle-based biopharmaceutical company filed suit, alleging that he had been wrongfully terminated. After the company’s liability insurer failed to provide sufficient authority to settle the CFO’s action, the company asserted claims for bad faith against the insurer. Represented by Frank Cordell and Michael Rosenberger, the company entered into a confidential settlement shortly before trial.
• Successful shareholder derivative case challenging board self-dealing – Michael Rosenberger and Frank Cordell successfully represented a local biotech company against its former insurer. When the company’s former CFO sued the client claiming he was wrongfully terminated, the insurer refused to make an offer that could have settled the case below policy limits. The client later had to settle for an amount substantially above policy limits, which settlement the insurer refused to pay. The insurer brought suit seeking a declaration of no coverage, and our client counterclaimed for breach of contract, bad faith and violation of the Washington Insurance Fair Conduct Act. The case settled on confidential terms on the eve of trial.
• Insurer must pay under D&O policy in bankruptcy court – DBSI is a former real estate investment company whose directors and officers were pursued on various securities and other claims throughout the country. Haley Krug and Frank Cordell successfully represented the company’s chief executive officer in insurance litigation taking place in Delaware Bankruptcy Court, obtaining coverage for the individual’s defense over the objection of the company’s insurers.
• Precedent-setting environmental insurance recovery case – Gull Industries, a longtime Seattle-based gasoline distributor, faced environmental clean-up obligations for 220 gas stations. When Gull sought to recover the cost of these clean-ups, which it undertook voluntarily, from various insurers under its CGL policies, the insurers denied the claims. Frank Cordell and Susannah Carr (along with co-counsel at Marten Law) engaged in a multi-phase case to recover the insurance proceeds. In 2014, in the first trial, a King County Superior Court jury returned a verdict in favor of Gull. Issues in this ongoing “master class” environmental case include the effect of non-cumulation clauses, reconstruction of lost policies from years ago based on fragmentary evidence, and prevailing against the insurers’ “expected or intended” policy language defense.
• Insurance policies help with costly environmental clean-up – Simpson Timber Co. is listed as one of the parties liable for cleanup of the 250-acre Pasco Sanitary Landfill – a large Superfund site. Simpson turned to GTTC for assistance. After a careful review of Simpson’s insurance policies, Frank Cordell and Michael Brown have recovered insurance proceeds covering the full amount of Simpson’s costs to date.
• City turns to insurer to help pay largest land use verdict in state history – In 2004, a developer proposed building a parking garage on land it owned. Over the ensuring years, the city in which the land is located was alleged to have frustrated the developer’s efforts. The city eventually took title to the land through a deed in lieu of foreclosure transaction. The developer later sued the city. In 2016, after more than three years of litigation, the King County Superior Court awarded $18.3 million to the developer – reportedly the largest land use judgment in the history of Washington State. The city appealed the verdict. Frank Cordell and Greg Pendleton successfully represented the city in a parallel insurance coverage case in federal court.
• Amicus counsel for the Association of General Contractors of Washington – GTTC lawyers Frank Cordell and Greg Pendleton prepared a successful amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Association of General Contractors in T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. Selective Insurance Company of America. The case asked whether “an insurer was bound by representations made by its authorized agent in a certificate of insurance with respect to a party’s status as an additional insured under a policy issued by the insurer, when the certificate includes language disclaiming its authority and ability to expand coverage.” The Washington Supreme Court answered in the affirmative. The issue was of considerable importance to Washington’s construction industry because certificates of insurance are routinely relied upon as evidence of compliance with contractual insurance requirements.

PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC INVOLVEMENT

• Member, William L. Dwyer American Inn of Court, 2021-Present
• Volunteer, University District Food Bank, Seattle
• Fellow, American College of Coverage Counsel
• Member, Lawyers Committee of the National Center for State Courts. 2022

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

Publications

•  “Eight Things Every U.S. Insurance Coverage Lawyer Should Know About Lloyd’s and the London Market,” in The Brief, Volume 46, Number 2, Winter 2017
• Volume Editor and Author of Chapters 4 and 6 “Insured’s Duties,” Washington Insurance Litigation Practice Guide (Lexis-Nexis 2016-17 ed.)
• Chapter 20, “Conditions and Insured’s Duties,” in New Appleman on Insurance Law – Library Edition, 2013
• Chapter 9, “Determining the Duties of the Policyholder,” in Appleman Insurance Law and Practice Guide, 2007

Presentations

• Speaker, The Primary Dilemma, Excess Insurer Rights and Risks, ABA Tort Trial Insurance Section, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Meeting, February 24, 2017, Phoenix, Arizona
• Chair and Speaker, The A to Z Guide to the London Market, ABA Tort Trial Insurance Section, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Meeting, February 20, 2016, Phoenix, Arizona
• Co-Chair, All Sums, Reallocation & Settlement Credits, October 21, 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Co-Chair, Mealey’s Insurance: All Sums Versus Pro-Rata Allocation, Methods of Exhaustion, Reallocation and Settlement Credits, October 15, 2007, Washington, D.C.
• Co-Chair, Program Committee and Program Author, The Mock Trial as Settlement Device and Trial-Preparation Tool, ABA Section of Litigation Annual Meeting, April 1998, and ABA Section of Litigation, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Meeting, February 1998
• Approximately 25 additional speaking engagements in Seattle and around the county, on a wide range of insurance topics

PERSONAL

In 1996 my partner Jeff Tilden showed me a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.” This quote—and the fact that Jeff practiced what he preached every day—had a powerful effect on me. It helped me understand that no short-term, expedient benefit is worth the risk of long-term harm, either to my client or my own reputation. In the long run, your reputation is all you have.

In my spare time, I enjoy cycling, striving mightily to be mediocre at golf, hiking with my family in the Cascades, planning trips and traveling with my history-teacher wife and history-geek 16-year-old daughter, and wine—not necessarily in that order.