An insurer is fighting a client's efforts to hold it responsible for a $3.3 million default judgment, arguing it never found out about the underlying case or award until more than 2.5 years after the accident that spurred it.

A declaratory judgment action filed in the Northern District said Everest Indemnity Insurance Co. was only apprised of the case when its insured, security service contractor The Cogar Group, was hit with a garnishment action last December and notified the insurer.     

Cogar's failure to notify Everest “as soon as practicable” of a covered event clears the insurer of any duty to defend or indemnify Cogar under the terms of the insurance policies, which expired in 2016.

Cogar is a Virginia-based company that provides security and related services to the U.S. military. A company representative declined to comment.

As detailed in court filings, the case began at Fort Gordon near Augusta in April 2015. An employee for a contractor was driving his company truck over a lowered security barrier into the base when a Cogar worker accidentally raised it, causing an accident that left driver Fernandez Hawkins with neck and spinal injuries.  

Hawkins and his wife filed a negligence suit against Cogar and its employee, Anthony McDavid, in Richmond County Superior Court seeking damages that included $15,000 in medical bills and $30,000 in lost wages.

The suit was served on Cogar and McDavid in December 2016, Everest's complaint said. McDavid notified Cogar when he was served, but the company did not notify the insurer.  

According to a default judgment order entered by Judge Daniel Craig in May 2017, neither Cogar nor McDavid answered the suit or filed any defensive pleadings. The order said Craig heard evidence and arguments on damages before awarding Hawkins $2.8 million and his wife, Terri Hawkins, $380,000.  

In December, the Hawkinses filed a $3.3 million garnishment action in Gwinnett County naming Cogar's bank, PNC, as the garnishee. That included $120,752 in post-judgment interest.

Everest received notice of the garnishment on Dec. 12, the same day the Hawkinses filed a domestication of judgment action in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Everest only learned of that action on Jan.11, its complaint said. Everest issued a commercial liability policy to Cogar valid from February 2015 to February 2016 with a $1 million per-occurrence and $5 million aggregate limits, and another commercial catastrophe policy for the same time period with limits of $1 million per occurrence.   

Both policies' terms included a requirement that the company immediately provide notice of any  “occurrence” which could result in a claim and to “Immediately send us any demands, notices, summonses or legal papers received in connection with any claim or 'suit.'”

Even so, it said, Cogar and McDavid contend the policies provide coverage for the Hawkins' personal injury suit.

Everest's action names Cogar, McDavid and the Hawkinses as defendants and asks the court to declare it “has no obligation to defend or indemnify Cogar or Mr. McDavid in the negligence suit, the garnishment action, or the Virginia action.”

Everest's attorneys, Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial partners Nicholas Panayotopoulos and Nancy Rigby, did not have permission to comment, nor did Cogar's attorney, Swift Currie McGhee & Hires partner Thomas Ward.

Mark Williamson of Augusta's Burnside Law Firm, who filed the underlying suit, declined to comment; Decatur solo Douglas Tozzi, who is handling the garnishment for the Hawkinses, did not respond.