Pesta v. City of Johnstown
This appeal concerns the applicability of the antisubrogation rule. Plaintiff, an employee of Peter Luizzi & Brothers Contracting (Luizzi), suffered severe injuries in a construction accident involving a Luizzi dump truck. Plaintiff sued defendant, who then filed a third-party action against Luizzi for common-law indemnification. The Supreme Court initially ruled defendant was entitled to indemnification for damages exceeding Luizzi's existing insurance policies. Upon reargument, the court granted defendant's motion in full, concluding the antisubrogation rule did not apply because Luizzi's commercial general liability, commercial automobile, and commercial liability umbrella policies had applicable exclusions, and the owners and contractors protective liability (OCP) policy named only the defendant as an insured. Luizzi appealed this decision. The appellate court affirmed, finding that the dump truck was an 'auto' under the CGL policy's exclusion, the co-employee exclusion in the automobile policy was valid, thus the umbrella policy was not implicated, and the antisubrogation rule was inapplicable to the OCP policy as it only insured the defendant.