Thursday, August 6, 2026
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Insurer Sues Insurer Over Liability for Death of Pitcher
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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In this June 29, 2019 file photo, Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs throws to an Oakland Athletics batter during a baseball game in Anaheim. |
One of the Los Angeles Angel’s insurers is suing another insurance company over its refusal to defend the baseball team in wrongful-death litigation connected to pitcher Tyler Skaggs’s fatal ingestion of illicit drugs in 2019.
Family members have blamed the Angels because its director of communications, Erik Kay, was allegedly Skaggs’s supplier. They assert that the Angels knew of Kay’s drug peddling but did not act to protect Skaggs.
The pitcher died in a Texas hotel room after taking counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl.
Two lawsuits were brought, one by Skaggs’s widow, in Orange Superior Court, and the other in Texas, with the decedent’s parents as plaintiffs. The Texas action was dismissed, with the parents joining in the California lawsuit.
Settlement was reached, for an undisclosed amount, shortly before Christmas 2025, with jurors in the midst of deliberating.
District Court Lawsuit
On Tuesday, Ace American Insurance Company, headquartered in Pennsylvania, brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Arch Insurance Company
The Angels had tendered the defense of both lawsuits to Ace, under its workers’ compensation and employers liability insurance policy, as well as to Arch, under a commercial general liability policy. Ace defended, with a reservation of rights; Arch didn’t until Nov. 14, 2025, in light of rulings, shortly before trial was to commence.
Ace at that point bowed out, reserving its right to reimbursement of sums it had expended up to that time.
Allegations of Complaint
In the complaint filed Tuesday, signed by Kenneth D. Watnick and David J. Billings of the downtown Los Angeles firm of Anderson, McPharlin & Conners LLP, Ace alleges:
“ARCH acknowledged that the California Complaint and the Texas Complaint alleged potentially covered ‘bodily injury’ but refused to provide a defense to the Angels, improperly relying on the Employers’ Liability exclusion in the ARCH Policy. ARCH knew or should have known that Tyler Skaggs was not acting in the course and scope of employment when he was injured. At the very least, ARCH knew or should have known it had a duty to defend the actions because there was a potential that Tyler Skaggs was not acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of his injury.”
It notes:
“During the period that ARCH wrongfully denied its defense obligation, ACE alone defended the Angels, under a complete reservation of rights.”
Four Claims
Ace pled causes of action for equitable subrogation, equitable contribution, equitable indemnification, and declaratory relief.
The complaint seeks a sum “in excess of $100,000” or an equitable share of that amount.
The case is Ace American Insurance Company v. Does 1-10, 2:26cv8580.
In 2022, Kay was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances in connection with the death of Skaggs and was sentenced in Texas on Oct. 11 of that year to 22 years in prison.
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