General Liability
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September 26, 2024
Seattle Firm Seeks $143M In Tunnel Machine Insurance Trial
A Seattle construction contractor told a Washington state jury on Wednesday its insurers owe $143 million for repairs to a massive tunneling machine that sustained "catastrophic damage" when it struck a steel pipe underground in 2013, urging jurors to reject the defense that the claim fell under a "machinery breakdown" exclusion.
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September 26, 2024
Round Up: Insurance Highlights At Climate Week NYC
The value of insurer climate risk disclosures, strengthening infrastructure and communicating climate risks were among the top issues that insurance industry officials, elected officials, and regulators highlighted at this year's edition of Climate Week in New York City.
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September 26, 2024
Edible Arrangements Says Zurich Shirked Policy Duties In $4M Suit
Atlanta-headquartered Edible Arrangements has hit the American Zurich Insurance Co. with a breach of contract suit seeking at least $4.2 million, claiming the insurer refused to defend and indemnify it against counterclaims stemming from a trademark suit it filed against another company.
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September 26, 2024
Ga. Hotel's Win Belies Uncertainty In Trafficking Coverage
A Georgia federal judge's ruling that an insurer must defend a hotel in an underlying trafficking lawsuit marked a win for insureds in maintaining the breadth of their policies, but arguments of exclusions and public policy violations continue to divide the courts, experts say.
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September 26, 2024
Insurer Tells NC Justices Not To Revive COVID Coverage Row
An insurer urged North Carolina's top court not to revive a clothing company's COVID-19 coverage suit, saying there has been an "overwhelming" consensus among courts in the U.S. that commercial property insurance policies do not cover business losses caused by the pandemic.
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September 26, 2024
Pa. Justices Say COVID Closures Aren't Covered Losses
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court shut the door Thursday on COVID-19 pandemic loss insurance coverage for businesses closed by government mandate, ruling that requisite physical loss or damage required tangible alteration to property, reversing a lower court decision that stated loss of use was sufficient.
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September 26, 2024
9th Circ. Says Defense Owed In Salesforce Trafficking Row
Travelers must defend Salesforce against consolidated underlying sex trafficking claims being litigated in Texas state court, the Ninth Circuit ruled, rejecting the insurer's position that because Salesforce's alleged violation of Texas sex trafficking statutes necessarily involved expected or intentional conduct, it had no defense obligation.
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September 26, 2024
Hinshaw Adds Insurance Atty Pair In Los Angeles
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP has announced a pair of experienced insurance attorneys, one of them a former in-house counsel with the California Department of Insurance, have joined the firm's Los Angeles office.
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September 26, 2024
NY Appeals Court Casts Doubt On $489M Trump Judgment
Judges on a New York state appeals court expressed skepticism Thursday of a $489 million civil fraud judgment against Donald Trump, his sons, companies and their executives, raising the prospect that the fine awarded to the attorney general could be reduced or vacated.
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September 25, 2024
Owner Tanked NC Captive Insurer, Directors Say
Minority shareholders of a now-defunct North Carolina captive insurer providing liability coverage to nursing homes accused the captive's majority shareholder of refusing to pay over $5 million in premiums and stealing funds to pay off his personal legal debts, seeking damages in North Carolina's business court.
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September 25, 2024
7th Circ. Judge Surprised Key Argument Left In Footnote
A Seventh Circuit judge seemed unsure Wednesday whether an insurer for Sterigenics could avoid a $75 million legal bill for defending the company from pollution suits, noting that the insurer addressed "the biggest issue in the case" in just a single, vague footnote.
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September 25, 2024
Insurer Can't Escape Coverage Of $10M NY Infant Injury Suit
A New York federal court ruled Wednesday that an insurer had to face certain claims brought by a general contractor seeking defense coverage for $10 million underlying litigation blaming it for negligently injuring an infant with falling sheetrock while working in his home.
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September 25, 2024
Dept. Asks Mich. Justices To Tackle Unitary Tax Case
The Michigan Supreme Court should review an appellate court decision that found that insurance companies that are part of Nationwide should file their taxes as a unitary group because the case poses a significant public impact, the state Treasury Department said.
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September 24, 2024
Insurer Says Telecom Co. Not Covered For Marshall Fire Suits
A Liberty Mutual unit told a Colorado federal court that a subsidiary of Lumen Technologies isn't an additional insured under a policy issued to a construction company, thus making the subsidiary ineligible for coverage of underlying lawsuits alleging that poorly designed telecommunications lines contributed to the 2021 Marshall Fire.
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September 24, 2024
Insurer Beats Co.'s $5.5M Crash Settlement Coverage Suit
A contractor for a road repavement project can't secure additional insured coverage under a subcontractor's policy for a $5.5 million settlement stemming from two accidents that were caused in part by insufficient warning signs, a North Carolina federal court ruled, noting the subcontractor properly completed its own signage work.
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September 23, 2024
Gordon Rees Gets Insurer's Wash. Malpractice Suit Trimmed
A Washington judge issued a mixed order in a lawsuit brought by the insurer for a climbing equipment manufacturer over allegations that misconduct by a Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP attorney — coupled with another insurer's decision to yank coverage — forced the manufacturer into a settlement over a climber's fall.
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September 23, 2024
Security Co.'s Fatal Shooting Suits Not Covered, Insurer Says
An insurer has said it doesn't owe coverage to a security guard service company in underlying negligence lawsuits stemming from a fatal shooting that occurred at a North Carolina truck stop where the company staffed security guards, citing certain policy exclusions.
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September 23, 2024
Insurer Freed From Damaged Blood Plasma Suit
A supplier of blood plasma can't secure coverage for a nearly $820,000 blood plasma shipment declared a total loss because of excessive temperature variation and shipping delays, a Georgia federal court ruled, finding the supplier failed to abide by separate temperature and delay warranties in its policy.
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September 23, 2024
Insurer Can't Escape Toddler Injury Suit Over Dollar Tree Mints
A Missouri federal judge tossed an insurer's bid to escape coverage of underlying litigation alleging a toddler suffered severe esophageal injuries after swallowing freshening drops sold by Dollar Tree, writing that the carrier's "broad interpretation" of its total pollution exclusion "yields an absurd result."
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September 20, 2024
Insurer Settles Conn. Suit Over Theft From Theater Group
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. has settled a dispute with a Florida couple who the insurer says bilked its policyholder, a theater education group, out of nearly $588,000 for their own personal use.
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September 19, 2024
Proposed $4B Hawaii Fire Deal Faces Insurance Questions
A proposed $4 billion settlement made on behalf of the victims of a 2023 wildfire in Hawaii could be imperiled depending on how the Hawaii Supreme Court approaches key questions concerning insurers' rights to recoup payments made to the victims.
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September 19, 2024
Insurer Must Cover Fatal Motorcycle Crash, Could Owe $12.5M
A Florida federal court ordered an insurer to pay up to its policy limits in a case that could cost it nearly $12.5 million after a delivery driver for a Chinese restaurant made an illegal turn on a Florida interstate, hitting and killing a motorcyclist in 2018.
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September 19, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Ninth Circuit upheld tribal jurisdiction over the Suquamish Tribe's COVID-19 coverage claims, a New York federal court ruled that an insured's untimely notice doomed its coverage bid and a tax court rejected an oil leasing company's $1.1 million deduction for what the company called a "microcaptive insurance" program. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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September 19, 2024
11th Circ. Asked To Revisit Coverage Ruling Over Comma
Food company owner ECB USA Inc. is asking the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider a decision clearing a Chubb insurance unit from covering a $4.2 million settlement agreement over the lack of a comma in a professional services policy, arguing the ruling misapplied New Jersey law.
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September 18, 2024
Fla. Jury Awards $5M To Teacher Injured In Car Crash
A Florida state court jury has awarded more than $5 million to a teacher involved in a 2022 vehicle collision, resulting in serious injuries to her back and neck following a trial in Jacksonville.
5th Circ. Silo Damage Reversal Sends Warning To Insurers
The Fifth Circuit sent general liability insurers a warning over attempts to flatly deny construction defect claims in the face of complex facts by reversing an insurer's early win in a dispute over what proportion of the damage to two faulty grain silos constituted covered property damage.
AIG Ghost Gun Win Shows Potential Tort Coverage Difficulties
A New York federal court's finding that AIG has no duty to defend a Texas-based firearms retailer against allegations it contributed to gun violence by selling "ghost gun" components could make getting coverage for mass torts more difficult based on theories of negligence.
Baltimore Bridge Crash Suits Add To Massive Insurance Toll
Federal and local officials are seeking hundreds of millions from the owner and manager of a cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, raising the insurance stakes of one of the costliest maritime disasters in history.
Expert Analysis
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3 Coverage Tips As 2nd Circ. 'Swipes Left' On Tinder Claim
The Second Circuit's recent opinion in Match Group v. Beazley Underwriting, overturning Tinder's victory on its insurer's motion to dismiss a coverage action, reinforces three best practices policyholders purchasing claims-made coverage should adhere to in order to avoid late-notice defenses, say Lynda Bennett and Alexander Corson at Lowenstein Sandler.
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What To Know About Insurance Coverage For Antitrust Risks
With all the regulatory activity surrounding antitrust and unfair competition claims, as highlighted by last month's D.C. federal court decision that Google is a monopolist, businesses must not only ensure compliance, but also understand their potential insurance coverage when such claims arise, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.
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Rise Of Transpo Contractors Brings Insurance Disputes
As more independent contractors are contracted and subcontracted in the delivery industry, companies must be prepared to defend claims from drivers who are injured on the job as they are often seeking to establish an employment relationship with one of the entities in the chain, says Nathan Milner at Goldberg Segalla.
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Finding Coverage For Online Retail Privacy Class Actions
Following recent court rulings interpreting state invasion of privacy and electronic surveillance statutes triggering a surge in the filing of privacy class actions against online retailers, companies should examine their various insurance policies, including E&O and D&O, for defense coverage of these claims, says Alison Gaske at Gilbert LLP.
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What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings
Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.
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Notable Q2 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss the muted nature of the property and casualty insurance class action space in the second quarter of the year, with no large waves made in labor depreciation and total-loss vehicle class actions, but a new offensive theory emerging for insurance companies.
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Insurance Lessons From 11th Circ. Ruling On Policy Grammar
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in ECB v. Chubb Insurance, holding that missing punctuation didn't change the clear meaning of a professional services policy, offers policyholder takeaways about the uncertainty that can arise when courts interpret insurance policy language based on obscure grammatical canons, say Hugh Lumpkin and Garrett Nemeroff at Reed Smith.
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6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror
Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.
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Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses
Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.
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Ore. Insurance Litigation Is Testing The Bounds After Moody
Despite the Oregon Supreme Court’s attempt to limit application of its 2023 decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union, which for the first time awarded extracontractual damages stemming from alleged negligent claims handling, recent litigation shows Oregon insurance companies face greater exposure, says Sarah Pozzi at Cozen O’Connor.
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What's In NYDFS Guidance On Use Of AI In Insurance
Matthew Gaul and Shlomo Potesky at Willkie summarize the New York Department of Financial Services' recently adopted circular letter on the use of artificial intelligence in insurance underwriting and pricing, and highlight the material changes made to it in response to comments on the draft circular letter.
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Del. 3M Ruling Risks Upending Corporate Insurance Programs
A Delaware court's findings last week in the 3M earplug insurance litigation that a parent company's defense fee payments don't count toward a subsidiary's self-insured retention and that an insurer's duty to pay defense costs doesn't attach to multidistrict litigation merit closer scrutiny in light of the modern corporate form and the fundamental objectives of MDLs, say Julie Hammerman and Gary Thompson at Thompson HD.
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Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.