Zurich American Insurance Company has taken DB Insurance Company to federal court, accusing the insurer of walking away from its defense obligations in a premises liability case.
The lawsuit, filed December 16, 2025, in the Southern District of New York, centers on a question that will sound familiar to many in the industry: who picks up the tab when a tenant's slip-and-fall triggers claims against landlords, property managers, and building owners?
The dispute traces back to a March 2017 incident at 55 Liberty Street in New York. Soo Kew Ong, a waitress at Koodo Sushi Company, claims she was seriously injured after falling on a stairway at the premises. She sued not only her employer but also the building's owner, manager, and related entities—Sutton Management, Liberty & Nassau Associates, LLC, First Service Residential New York Inc., and 55 Liberty Owners Corp.
That is where the insurance picture gets complicated.
Koodo held a commercial general liability policy with DB Insurance at the time of the incident. According to court filings, the policy listed Liberty & Nassau Associates as an additional insured under a "Managers/Lessors of Premises" endorsement. Zurich, which issued its own policy to Sutton Management, stepped up to defend the landlord entities under a reservation of rights.
But Zurich maintains that DB Insurance should have been handling the defense all along—and on a primary basis.
The insurer points to a 2007 sublease agreement between Liberty & Nassau Associates and Koodo. That agreement required the tenant to carry liability coverage naming the landlord and related parties as additional insureds. Crucially, the sublease specified that the tenant's coverage "shall be primary with respect to any policies carried by Landlord, and that any coverage carried by Landlord, if any, shall be excess insurance."
Zurich says it tendered the defense to DB Insurance in August 2023. DB Insurance declined. Zurich tried again in September 2025. DB Insurance declined again.
Now Zurich wants the court to declare that Sutton, Liberty & Nassau Associates, First Service, and 55 Liberty all qualify as additional insureds under the DB Insurance policy. It also seeks a ruling that DB Insurance owes a duty to defend and indemnify those entities on a primary, non-contributory basis. On top of that, Zurich is asking for reimbursement of the defense costs it has shouldered since taking on the case.
The matter remains in its early stages, with no determination yet on the merits.
For insurance professionals, the case underscores how lease-required insurance provisions can ripple through multiple policies and create coverage disputes years after the ink dries. When tenants are contractually obligated to name landlords and managers as additional insureds, questions over who owes primary coverage often follow when claims arise.
