Stein v. Axis Ins. Co.
In 2007, Heart Tronics, Inc., a medical device company, purchased directors and officers liability insurance policies from AXIS Insurance Company (AXIS) and Houston Casualty Company (HCC). The AXIS policy has been exhausted.
Under the HCC policy, HCC agreed to pay defense expenses incurred by Heart Tronics’s officers and directors, and individuals serving in functionally equivalent capacities, in any criminal or civil proceedings, including appeals. An exclusion provided that upon final determination that an insured person committed willful misconduct, the insured would be obligated to repay the insurer any defense expenses paid on his or her behalf.
Mitchell J. Stein served Heart Tronics as a de facto officer, managing the company full-time without pay or formal position or title. In 2013, Stein was convicted of securities fraud in federal court. He tendered his appeal of that conviction to HCC, but HCC denied coverage, in part because it considered the conviction to
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