In what appears to be the first decision directly addressing the revised wrap exclusion, Fabiani Cohen & Hall, LLP prevailed on behalf of its client, Monadnock Construction Inc. against Southwest Marine Insurance Company.  Miguel Castro, an employee of non-enrolled subcontractor, MD Scaffolding, was injured when a fellow MD Scaffolding employee dropped a piece of construction material from above, hitting him in the head.  Monadnock provided a Contractor Controlled Insurance Program (CCIP) for the project but MD Scaffolding did not enroll.  When Monadnock tendered to MD Scaffolding’s general liability insurer, Southwest Marine, the latter denied coverage, asserting the wrap exclusion in its policy.  On summary judgment motion practice, Southwest Marine cited two decisions, one from the First Department and one from Supreme Court, New York County, for the proposition that because Monadnock was enrolled, the wrap exclusion applied to deprive it of coverage.  Monadnock pointed out to the Court (Judge Fidel E. Gomez) that the wrap exclusion in the two cases cited by Southwest Marine were materially different than the wrap exclusion in the Southwest Marine policy.  Explaining that after the two decisions on which Southwest Marine relied were handed down, the insurance industry changed the language of the wrap exclusion to eliminate coverage only when the named insured is enrolled, Judge Gomez found in favor of Monadnock, and awarded it summary judgment requiring Southwest Marine to defend and indemnify Monadnock in the Castro action.

Monadnock Construction, Inc. v. Southwest Marine Insurance Company et al., Index No. 814469/2024E (Sup. Ct., Bronx Co., June 8, 2026)