The Notice-Prejudice Rule In California: Is It A Fundamental Public Policy?

On January 13, 2017, the Ninth Circuit certified the following two questions to the California Supreme Court:

1.   Is California’s common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purposes of choice-of-law analysis?

and

2.   If the notice-prejudice rule is a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis, can a consent provision in a first-party claim insurance policy be interpreted as a notice provision such that the notice-prejudice rule applies?

(Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company (Jan. 13, 2017) 2017 WL128563 * 1.)

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