On July 14, 2025, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Company must cover more than $6 million in defense costs and interest tied to toxic exposure claims against Technicolor’s former Taiwanese subsidiary. The decision underscores the risks for commercial insurers denying coverage in complex cross-border litigation, especially when policy terms around prior knowledge and underlying insurance are in dispute.
The case arose from two class actions filed in Taiwan involving workers who alleged chemical exposure while employed by Thomson Consumer Electronics Television Taiwan Limited (TCETVT), a now-defunct subsidiary of Technicolor. Taiwanese courts held TCETVT directly liable and its parent companies – Technicolor S.A. and Thomson Consumer Electronics Bermuda Limited (TCEB) – vicariously liable through corporate veil-piercing. Technicolor USA, a minor shareholder, was initially named but later dismissed from the case.
After facing mounting defense costs in the second class action, Technicolor sought coverage under six Allianz-issued policies: three primary commercial general liability (CGL) and three umbrella policies spanning 2014 to 2017. Allianz pushed back, arguing that Technicolor knew about the potential claims when it bought the policies and that the policies’ so-called “deemer” clauses excluded the new lawsuits.
But the appellate court wasn’t persuaded. While acknowledging that Technicolor was already defending a related class action, the court said the second lawsuit involved a separate group of claimants who weren’t part of the first and weren’t foreseeable at the time the policies were purchased. The court ruled that Allianz didn’t show Technicolor had prior knowledge of the specific claims in the second suit – an essential threshold under Indiana’s known loss doctrine.
The deemer clauses, which treat any continuation of known injuries as pre-policy occurrences, didn’t save Allianz either. The court viewed the language as exclusionary and said the insurer hadn’t demonstrated that Technicolor knew of any individual injuries in the second class when the coverage began.
Allianz also argued that its umbrella policies were excess-only and didn’t kick in unless other insurers had paid out. But the court pointed out that Allianz’s policies included a clause that triggered a duty to defend if no “scheduled underlying insurance” applied – and none of the policies listed Technicolor’s other carriers. That meant Allianz was on the hook regardless of what other insurers were doing.
In a key finding, the court held that Technicolor’s French parent company, Technicolor S.A., was covered under the umbrella policies as a shareholder in the named insureds. Allianz disputed this, noting Technicolor S.A. wasn’t a named party, but the court emphasized that the policy language extended coverage to stockholders when they’re held liable in that capacity – which was exactly the situation here.
The ruling also upheld $962,000 in prejudgment interest on defense costs. Allianz had claimed that Technicolor never proved when it paid its lawyers, but the court ruled that interest could be calculated from when payments were due, not necessarily made. As long as the costs were clear and undisputed, that was enough.
Finally, the decision approved arbitration-related costs that Technicolor incurred in proceedings with General Electric and Intersil. Allianz said those were unrelated to the Taiwanese lawsuits and shouldn’t be covered. But the court found the arbitrations were a strategic effort to reduce Technicolor’s liability in the class actions and therefore part of a legitimate defense strategy.
The ruling, which follows similar decisions involving co-insurer XL Insurance America, sends a clear message: insurers can’t rely on vague prior knowledge defenses or policy ambiguity to avoid coverage in multi-entity, multi-jurisdictional disputes. For underwriters and claims handlers managing global corporate risk, it’s a cautionary tale on the importance of precise policy drafting and clear scheduling of underlying coverage.
