Def: does not work, period

INTONE

I have spent days trying various combination to get the def:"Select..." to work. The only I was able to get this was doing something like this:

                           {
                                label: "<b>Vehicle 1 Insurance Company:</b>",
                                className:"insurance_case",
                                name:  "cases.vehicle_1_insurance_company",
                                id:"cases_vehicle_1_insurance_company",
                                type:"select",
                                def:"Select..." //does notwork
                            }

then I have to do this:


        editor.on( 'initCreate', function ( e) {
             if($("#cases_vehicle_1_insurance_company").length == 0){

                $("#cases_vehicle_1_insurance_company").prepend("<option value=''>Select...</option>");
            }

      })

this works sometimes but is not flawless, furthermore I should not have to do this. Can any one point out what I am doing wrong please. This is now a show stopper. By the way the def: does not work when using static or dynamic list.