What happened: Two homeowners' insurers allege a third carrier insured the dog that bit someone but will not pick up their calls or share in the defense
Who's involved: US Coastal Insurance, Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance, and American Summit Insurance
What's at stake: Defense costs and potential payouts in a personal injury lawsuit - amount to be set by the court
Why it matters: When one carrier goes silent on a tender, the others are left holding the bag - and the legal bill
Where it stands: Complaint filed October 1, 2026, in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey
A dog named Gunther has three insurance companies in a standoff.
US Coastal Insurance and Allstate have gone to federal court in New Jersey, alleging that a third carrier - American Summit Insurance - insures the dog's owner but has gone completely silent since they asked it to step in.
The underlying fight started with a dog bite in Toms River, New Jersey. According to the complaint, a woman was attacked and bitten by Gunther - and so was her own dog - near a home in Ocean County on May 18, 2025. She filed a personal injury lawsuit in the Superior Court of New Jersey in August 2025, initially suing the homeowners. She later added the dog's actual owner as a co-defendant in November 2025.
Both US Coastal and Allstate had homeowners' policies covering the couple at whose property the incident took place. Both stepped up and started defending them in the underlying lawsuit. But here is the wrinkle: according to the complaint, Gunther did not belong to the couple. The dog belonged to a different person - one covered under an American Summit homeowners' policy.
The complaint says American Summit's policy covers anyone who is legally responsible for animals owned by the policyholder or members of their household. If that is right, the plaintiffs argue, American Summit should be the first insurer at the table - picking up the defense on a primary basis, not splitting costs, and certainly not sitting it out.
US Coastal says it formally asked American Summit to take over the defense on April 7, 2026. According to the complaint, American Summit has not responded. At all.
That silence is the heart of the lawsuit. US Coastal and Allstate want a court order declaring that American Summit must defend and cover the homeowners in the underlying case as the primary insurer - and pay back both carriers for the defense costs they have already run up.
The complaint does not put a number on the defense costs so far, asking instead for an amount to be decided by the court. The case cleared the threshold for federal jurisdiction, with the amount in dispute exceeding $75,000.
This is the kind of file that lands when a routine dog-bite claim suddenly involves overlapping policies and a carrier that will not engage. How courts sort out which insurer must defend when the animal's owner and the premises owner carry different policies has real implications for how claims teams handle tenders - and when they can chase reimbursement from a fellow carrier.
The allegations in the complaint have not been tested, and no court has ruled on the merits of the claims.
