Jose Castillo didn’t ask his insurance company to defend him from a lawsuit that alleged his shoddy construction caused millions of dollars in water damage to a townhouse project, so his insurer didn’t provide a defense.
That turned out to be a big mistake. A panel of the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a trial court order requiring Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. to pay an award totaling $27,339,535, even though the policies it sold Castillo’s company provided only $2.5 million in coverage.
The appellate panel said it found nothing in South Caro