The Travelers Indemnity Company has sued Kinsale Insurance Company and James River Insurance Company, saying both carriers walked away from a defense they were supposed to provide.
The complaint, filed May 28, 2026 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, grows out of a construction-defect suit over a Beverly Hills property at 2401 Briar Crest Road. In that case, a property owner sued the general contractor, Shawmut, over allegedly defective work - bad gypcrete, leaks in the master bath, water intrusion at the roof, and poorly installed metal coping, among other issues. According to the complaint, that suit was filed on or about October 20, 2022 and seeks damages "in excess of $3,000,000."
Travelers issued Shawmut a commercial general liability policy with a $5,000,000 per-occurrence limit. But it says that coverage was only ever meant to sit on top of someone else's. The filing quotes the policy: Shawmut's coverage "is excess over any coverage available to Shawmut as an additional insured."
That's the crux. According to the complaint, three subcontractors on the project - Allied Roofing & Waterproofing, Sound-Crete Contractors, and PRS Consulting - were each required to name Shawmut as an additional insured on a "primary and non-contributory" basis. Kinsale insured Allied. James River insured Sound-Crete and PRS. So Travelers argues their policies should pay first.
Travelers says it asked both carriers to take over and got turned down. The complaint alleges Kinsale "has refused to defend or indemnify Shawmut in any respect." James River refused under the Sound-Crete policies, the filing says. It did accept the defense under the PRS policies - but only under a reservation of rights issued February 18, 2025, and Travelers alleges it never repaid costs from the November 6, 2023 tender date forward, or paid the vendors and experts.
Travelers is defending Shawmut under its own reservation of rights and says it keeps spending money it believes the others owe. It is asking the court to declare Kinsale and James River the primary payers, with Travelers' policy sitting excess, and to order them to repay its defense costs through claims for equitable indemnity, subrogation, and contribution, plus interest.
For claims professionals, it is a tidy lesson in how additional-insured wording and primary-versus-excess language decide who actually pays. The defect claim is not the story. The story is three carriers fighting over the batting order - and one of them asking a federal judge to set it.
None of this has been tested in court. Kinsale and James River have not filed a response, and no judge has ruled. The complaint reflects only Travelers' account.
