Travelers has taken a fellow insurer to federal court, saying it was left covering a defense bill that should have been a rival's to pay.
In a complaint filed June 1, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America accuses State National Insurance Company of dodging its duty to defend Consolidated Edison in an injury suit, then leaving Travelers holding the cost.
The dispute grows out of a construction job at Con Edison's College Point Service Center in Queens. Con Ed hired On-Trac Construction Associates as general contractor, and On-Trac brought in Joyce Interiors for drywall and carpentry. On March 20, 2024, a Joyce worker, Mark Hamill, was hurt when a co-worker moved a cart, a wheel lodged in a hole in the floor, and the cart tipped and struck him. Hamill, the complaint says, suffered injuries to his hand, arm, elbow, wrist, knee, ankle, rib cage, leg and back. He and his wife sued On-Trac and Con Ed in state court in September 2024.
The coverage question sits at the center. Joyce's subcontract required it to name On-Trac, the project owner and others as additional insureds on a primary and non-contributory basis. Joyce bought a commercial general liability policy from State National to meet that obligation.
That policy carried a blanket additional-insured endorsement covering any entity Joyce agreed by written contract to cover, but only for Joyce's own work. It also carried a primary-and-noncontributory endorsement, making the coverage primary where a written contract required it and where the claim arose directly from Joyce's work.
Travelers, which issued On-Trac's policy, says Con Ed qualifies as an additional insured under the State National policy and that its coverage comes first. Travelers' policy, it notes, carries an other-insurance clause making its coverage excess over any other insurance available to Con Ed as an additional insured. In short, Travelers says it should pay only after State National's policy runs out.
According to the filing, Travelers tendered the case to State National in October 2024 and chased it for months. State National accepted the tender for On-Trac in September 2025 but, the complaint says, never stated a coverage position for Con Ed. Travelers re-tendered on Con Ed's behalf several times into February 2026. State National, the filing states, has never denied coverage for Con Ed yet never accepted the tender, forcing Travelers to step in and defend Con Ed on its own.
Travelers now wants a court to declare that State National must defend and indemnify Con Ed on a primary basis, plus a money judgment to recover the defense costs it has already paid.
The allegations have not been tested in court. State National has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
