Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. Woodfield Mall

Widow filed wrongful death and survival action against owners and manager of shopping mall, alleging their negligence caused death of her husband, an HVAC technician dispatched by his employer to service the air conditioning equipment for a tenant of the mall. Decedent fell to the concrete floor 10 feet below, allegedly due to 28-inch gap between roof hatch and top rung of affixed ladder. Ohio substantive law applies to interpretation of tenant's CGL insurance policy, as tenant company was domiciled and headquartered in Ohio, and policy was personally delivered in Ohio; thus, Ohio has most significant contacts with the policy. Decedent was performing HVAC work, rather than work related to the tenant's retail business; thus, tenant's policy did not encompass incident and its insurer was not required to defend the mall. (CAHILL and R. GORDON, concurring.)