Alaska Insurance Company v. RCA Alaska Communications, Inc.
Supreme Court of Alaska
623 P.2d 1216 (1981)
Bachner's lease with RCA (defendant) required Bachner to obtain and maintain fire insurance on the leased warehouse and made RCA liable for damages from its own negligence, but the lease never added RCA as a named insured or preserved the insurer's subrogation rights against RCA. After a fire, allegedly caused by an RCA employee's negligence, destroyed the warehouse, AIC (plaintiff) paid Bachner's claim and then sued RCA as subrogee to recover that payment; the trial court granted RCA summary judgment on the theory that RCA was an implied co-insured.
Whether, when a commercial lease requires the landlord to obtain and maintain insurance on the leased premises, the tenant is an implied co-insured under that policy, barring the insurer's subrogation claim against the tenant.