In late July, the U.S. District Court for Central California denied a motion by Seattle-based Safeco Insurance Co. for reconsideration of an April ruling which gave innocent co-insureds the right to collect damages, even in situations where a property insurer's policy language is designed to preclude coverage for all insureds in circumstances where one of the insureds commits an intentional act of fraud.
If the ruling stands, insurers like Safeco would be required to change language in their homeowners policies. The language in question falls under the "concealment or fraud" section of the homeowners policy, where the words "an insured" are used to define who is insured under a homeowner's policy. What Judge Ronald S.W. Lew's ruling would change is the word "an" to "the" so the policy would read "the insured."
