United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Slides of Law

Download United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and more Slides Law in PDF only on Docsity! NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT NATIONAL FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-counter- defendant-Appellee, v. SCOTT HAMPTON, as Heir, Executor and Personal Representative of the ESTATE OF DIANA HAMPTON, individually and on behalf of his minor children I.S. and S.M., Defendant-Appellant, and STEVEN A. HOLPER, Defendant-counter-claimant. No. 19-17235 D.C. No. 2:18-cv-01338-JCM-BNW MEMORANDUM* Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada James C. Mahan, District Judge, Presiding FILED OCT 21 2020 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. Submitted October 19, 2020** San Francisco, California Before: THOMAS, Chief Judge, and KELLY*** and MILLER, Circuit Judges. Intervenor Defendant-Appellant Scott Hampton, as a representative of the estate of Diana Hampton (“the Estate”), appeals the district court’s decision granting Plaintiff-Appellee National Fire & Marine Insurance Co.’s (“National Fire”) motion for summary judgment. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the facts of this case, we need not recount them here. We review orders granting motions for summary judgment de novo, A.G. v. Paradise Valley Unified Sch. Dist. No. 69, 815 F.3d 1195, 1202 (9th Cir. 2016), and we review a district court’s interpretation of contract provisions de novo, Flores v. Lynch, 828 F.3d 898, 905 (9th Cir. 2016). We review a district court’s denial of discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) for abuse of discretion. Atay v. Cnty. of Maui, 842 F.3d 688, 698 (9th Cir. 2016). 1. Under Nevada law, for an insurer to avoid coverage under a policy exclusion, it must “(1) write the exclusion in obvious and unambiguous language * * The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). * * * The Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr., United States Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, sitting by designation. 2