BatesCarey attorneys Adam Fleischer, Josh Boggioni, and Paige Houin won summary judgment relative to over $45 million demanded from Great American relative to its policyholder’s alleged allocated responsibility for a portion of The Kroger Company’s $1.4 billion global opioid settlement. 

Harris Teeter is a subsidiary of Kroger. Kroger had entered a $1.4 billion global opioid settlement with governments across the United States. As part of that settlement, Kroger then internally calculated how many opioids had been sold in which states by Harris Teeter and assigned Harris Teeter $60 million of “responsibility” for the settlement.

Harris Teeter sued its insurers, arguing that this $60 million of assigned liability represented the amounts for which it was responsible in lawsuits that were filed against Kroger, but where Harris Teeter was really the intended target, and that this $60 million of assigned liability also represented amounts for which Harris Teeter would have been sued by governmental plaintiffs if it did not have the protection of the global settlement. Once allocated according to Harris Teeter’s insurance arguments, Great American owed more than $45 million. 

The Forsyth County, North Carolina Superior Court ruled that Harris Teeter was not in fact “legally obligated to pay” Durham County (the one government that sued it), nor was Harris Teeter “legally obligated to pay” any of the other governments with which Kroger allegedly settled on behalf of Harris Teeter.