{"id":2443250,"date":"2019-04-21T21:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T03:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/business-monday-court-says-insurer-doesnt-have-to-cover-aspen-developer-in-civil-case\/"},"modified":"2019-04-21T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T03:44:00","slug":"business-monday-court-says-insurer-doesnt-have-to-cover-aspen-developer-in-civil-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/business-monday-court-says-insurer-doesnt-have-to-cover-aspen-developer-in-civil-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Monday: Court says insurer doesn\u2019t have to cover Aspen developer in civil case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an insurance carrier does not have to pay for damages related to the civil domestic-violence case of Nikos Hecht, an Aspen hedge-funder and real estate developer.<\/p>\n

A 14-page order and judgment issued April 18 said Hecht\u2019s personal and excess liability coverage policies under Great Northern Insurance Co., also known as Chubb, would not cover the monetary settlement agreement he reached with his ex-girlfriend in September 2017. Terms of the settlement were and remain confidential.<\/p>\n

After the settlement was made, Hecht sued Chubb in federal court over its refusal to cover the damages. His claims were breach of contract and refusal to defend him in the civil case, as well as denial of payment, among other damages.<\/p>\n

The lower court granted summary judgment in favor of Chubb, from which Hecht bought a $35 million policy in September 2014. He then appealed the ruling.<\/p>\n

While Hecht\u2019s policies covered personal injuries, the appellate court ruled that Hecht was not covered in the event he committed intentional acts Chubb defined as \u201carising out of a willful, malicious, fraudulent or dishonest act or any act intended by any covered person to cause personal injury or property damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecht\u2019s ex-girlfriend sued him in March 2016, roughly a month after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment in a domestic violence case from August 2015 involving the woman. She alleged in the suit that Hecht physically and mentally abused her, turned her into a drug addict and manipulated her into having two abortions.<\/p>\n

She also alleged Hecht drugged her with fentanyl patches but told her they were \u201cIcy Hot patches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suit came after Pitkin County Judge Erin Fernandez-Ely, in February 2016, sentenced Hecht to two years\u2019 probation in a domestic violence case involving the same victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cHecht pleaded guilty to domestic violence as a consequence of his abuse,\u201d the Court of Appeals\u2019 three-judge panel wrote in last week\u2019s decision. \u201cThe exclusion plainly bars coverage for his conduct. To the extent Hecht suggests we should view his false imprisonment separate from his abuse, we agree with the district court\u2019s conclusion that the conduct was inseparably intertwined. There was no duty to defend in this case. Accordingly, the district court was correct to grant judgment in favor of Chubb on all claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecht\u2019s attorneys had argued that the allegations against him weren\u2019t sexual in nature, which he claimed did not happen in the cabin where the woman said he abused her. Had they been sexual, then Chubb would not have been obligated to cover Hecht, his attorneys argued.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeals, however, reasoned that the totality of all of the case\u2019s circumstances precluded Chubb from covering Hecht.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state court judge presiding over the criminal matter even expressly said that Hecht exhibited abusive conduct,\u201d the appellate court said. \u201cWe agree. Nevertheless, undeterred, Hecht attempts to rewrite the policies. He says the exclusion for abuse should be read to exclude not abuse in general, but sexual abuse in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecht\u2019s firm Lewis Roca Rothberger Christie LLP, which has an office in Denver, could not be reached for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an insurance carrier does not have to pay for damages related to the civil domestic-violence case of Nikos Hecht, an Aspen hedge-funder and real estate developer. A 14-page order and judgment issued April 18 said Hecht\u2019s personal and excess liability coverage policies under Great Northern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 02:55:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}