In a unanimous decision handed down by the California Supreme Court yesterday afternoon in Fluor Corporation v. Superior Court, the court removed a significant obstacle facing companies that want to assign their interests in a third party insurance policy to a successor company as part of a corporate restructuring or sale. It held that an anti-assignment clause in liability policies prohibiting an insured from assigning its interests under the policy without the insurer’s consent is not enforceable after a covered loss, that is, after a third party has suffered personal injury or property damage for which the insured may be liable. The decision overturns the court’s earlier decision in Henkel Corp. v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. (2003) 29 Cal. 4th 934, in which the state high court held that an anti-assignment clause remains enforceable much longer, until the third party’s claim against the insured has been reduced to a sum of money due, or to become due, under the policy, such as an adverse judgment against the insured in the underlying action. In doing so, the court relied on a California statute first enacted in 1872 that received almost no attention before Fluor and was never considered in Henkel.

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