James Thurston (Partner-Chicago), Daniel Tranen (Partner-St. Louis, MO), and Robert Curtis (Associate-St. Louis, MO) secured a declaratory judgment dismissal on motion on the pleadings for an insurance company client in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The plaintiffs in this matter, executives at a company insured by our client, sought coverage for a lawsuit and a demand letter arising out of their provision of personal guarantees to the company for more than $14 million in debt to a lender and a supplier. The client had denied coverage because these personal guarantees were not made in the executives' capacity as officers of the company. The executives argued that they would not have made the personal guarantees but for the fact that they were officers of the company. However, the court agreed with the insurance company client that personal guarantees are personal obligations, and therefore, cannot be made by the executives in their "capacity" as officers of the company, particularly since if they had done so, then it would have been the company guaranteeing its own debt.