Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court, in Yahoo Inc. v. National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of California No. S253593, ruled in favor of Yahoo, Inc. (Yahoo!), a policyholder seeking insurance coverage for Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claims.
The case came to the California Supreme Court as a certified question of law from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court reviewed the federal district court’s ruling, which dismissed Yahoo!’s insurance coverage action, and entered a judgment in favor of National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA (National Union). The high court disagreed, applying well-settled California rules of insurance policy interpretation, and found that the commercial general liability policy was ambiguous and must be interpreted in accordance with Yahoo!’s objectively reasonable expectations.
The facts
Congress passed the TCPA in 1991 to protect telephone users from unsolicited robocalls, robotexts, and junk faxes. Yahoo! has been named in a series of putative class action lawsuits alleging unsolicited text messages in violation of the TCPA. National Union declined to defend or indemnify Yahoo! in these lawsuits, claiming that the policy language in its commercial general liability insurance policy unambiguously bars coverage.