Bill Cosby’s lawyers seek insurer’s claim history

Feb. 18--Bill Cosby's attorneys are trying to get their hands on AIG Property Casualty's case files to find out how the New York insurer has dealt with other policyholders' claims involving accusations of sexual misconduct as the company fights the embattled entertainer on similar grounds here in Massachusetts.

"We think this is very relevant for this case," Cosby's lawyer Mikaela Gallagher-Whitman told Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy at a hearing yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston.

AIG is suing to extricate itself from paying out potential financial awards to seven women over their rape claims against the fallen comedian.

The surprise request by Cosby's lawyers appeared to test the patience of Hennessy, who slammed the audit as "a great big 'So what?' " Nevertheless, he granted them until March 4 to make their case to him in writing, and AIG, until April 1 to produce the files and other information Cosby's defenders seek.

That includes how AIG came up with the policy language it claims protects the company covering him against defamation claims by the seven women accusing him of rape.

"I won't rule on a discovery motion until it's before me," Hennessy said. "The court has a hard time believing there's more to it than what's in the contract, but the court's being told that there is."

After AIG attorney William Schneider commented, "I understand the court is prepared to indulge Mr. Cosby with discovery," Hennessy sternly advised him and Cosby's legal team to discuss the matter amongst themselves prior to their deadlines.

"I don't want to be presiding over a dispute that can be resolved on your own," the judge said.

Cosby, 77, of Shelburne Falls, did not attend the hearing.

Television producer Camille Cosby, the comedian's wife of 52 years, is scheduled to be deposed by the women's attorneys Monday at a hotel in Springfield for their federal lawsuit filed in 2014. That year, AIG issued Cosby a homeowners policy financially protecting him against defamation, libel and slander provided a personal injury claim is not "arising out of" any actual, alleged or threatened "sexual misconduct, molestation, or harassment," the policy reads.

Gallagher-Whitman argued yesterday the key phrase, "arising out of," is "an ambiguous policy term." AIG counters it is not.

A federal judge in California sided with Cosby last November in a similar lawsuit brought against him by AIG stemming from former supermodel Janice Dickinson's claim that Cosby sexually assaulted her. The judge ruled AIG had a duty to defend Cosby.

Hennessy repeatedly questioned the need for Cosby's lawyers to rifle through AIG's files.

"This is what the fight is going to be about: Is the term ambiguous? ... If the court says it's ambiguous, you've won, AIG has lost," he told Gallagher-Whitman.

"I don't mean to be dismissive, but who cares what the files say? ... Isn't that a great big 'So what?' "

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