MESA Underwriters — Completed-operations exclusion defeats defense and indemnity duties
Applying North Carolina’s comparison test, the Court of Appeals compared the complaint’s allegations with the policy language and held that the completed-operations exclusion independently barred coverage. The duty-to-defend inquiry ordinarily looks to facts actually alleged, not an insured’s competing version of events outside the pleadings. Because the exclusion eliminated the broader duty to defend, the narrower d