Property

Expert Analysis

• COVID Coverage Cases Conflict With Insurer Documentation

  

  A look at three court cases highlights a gap between successful insurer arguments made in litigation about policy text and the insurance industry's own understanding of the potential for property damage and business interruption coverage of virus- and disease-related claims, say professors at UConn, the University of Nevada and Queen's University.

• Pandemic Losses Do Not Trigger Biz Interruption Coverage

  

  Although Law360 has reported that there may be hope for policyholders seeking property insurance coverage for pandemic-related losses, basic contract principles and overwhelming case law show the opposite, say attorneys at Dentons.

• 2 Calif. Insurance Decisions Question Boundaries Of Fortuity

  

  Last month, California state and federal courts revisited fortuity issues in two decisions that show how the occurrence requirement and the California Insurance Code's prohibition on coverage for an insured's willful acts can be exceedingly difficult to apply to lawsuits alleging novel legal theories, say Jodi Green and Sophia von Bergen at Miller Nash.

• Insurer Best Practices For NY Climate Risk Compliance

  

  Insurers should view the New York Department of Financial Services' guidance on managing financial risks from climate change as a bellwether for state and federal regulation and should use the time before this summer's compliance deadline to prepare and implement an appropriate response strategy, say Jim Wrynn and Robert Stephens at FTI Consulting.

• Assessing NFT Insurance Coverage Options And Gaps

  

  Because non-fungible tokens do not come bundled with insurance policies, and until NFT-specific insurance policies become more common, NFT owners should proactively protect against risk by drawing upon existing frameworks, despite potential coverage gaps, say Brian Scarbrough and Edward Crouse at Jenner & Block.

• Crypto And NFTs Could Change The Future Of Real Estate

  

  As they grow increasingly popular, cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens may shape how real estate transactions are conducted and open the market to many new investors, but these changes are not without risk, says Hugo Alvarez at Cole Scott.

• The Misinterpretation Of Pa.'s Bad Faith Claims Handling Rule

  

  Courts applying Pennsylvania law in insurance coverage disputes, such as the recently decided Walker v. Foremost Insurance, and finding that where an insurer establishes that the subject claim is not covered by the insurer’s policy there can also be no bad faith claim by the insured, are inaccurately interpreting state law, say George Stewart and Max Louik at Reed Smith.

• How Sonic Boom Risk Informs 'Physical Loss' For COVID Era

  

  Applied to today's COVID-19 business interruption insurance battles, insurers' historical treatment of damage associated with sonic booms — or explosive sounds stemming from supersonic airplane speeds — may call into question the many court rulings barring coverage for pandemic-related losses on narrow physical loss grounds, say Peter Kochenburger at the University of Connecticut and Jeffrey Stempel at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

• Justices Must Apply Law Evenly In Shadow Docket Rulings

  

  In recent shadow docket decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has inconsistently applied the requirement that parties demonstrate irreparable harm to obtain injunctive relief, which is problematic for two separate but related reasons, says David Hopkins at Benesch.

• Ill. COVID Rulings Correctly Adopt Physical Loss Standard

  

  In two recent decisions, Sweet Berry Cafe v. Society Insurance and Lee v. State Farm, Illinois appellate courts properly followed the Illinois Supreme Court's standard for physical loss when deciding COVID-19 business interruption cases, says Melinda Kollross at Clausen Miller.

• A Guide To Extrinsic Evidence In Determining Duty To Defend

  

  As the eight-corners rule for the duty to defend is increasingly riddled with exceptions to its strict formulation of confining the analysis to only the language of the insurance policy and the underlying complaint, Richard Mason at MasonADR discusses the newest notable decisions and offers strategies for attorneys litigating the duty to defend.

• Political Risk Insurance May Help Cos. Hurt By Russian War

  

  As Russia’s war on Ukraine causes severe economic fallout, it’s crucial that U.S. companies with operations in the region understand what losses might be covered by their political risk insurance policies, and take steps to ensure that all available coverage is preserved and maximized, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes and Boone.

• Conn. Ruling Widens Scope Of Property Insurance Appraisals

  

  After the Connecticut Supreme Court’s recent decision in Klass v. Liberty Mutual, holding that appraisers can apply the state’s matching statute when determining the amount of loss, insurers may not avoid appraisal on the sole basis that there is a coverage dispute, and policyholders will likely attempt to further expand the scope of appraisers' authority, says Peter Kelly Golfman at Zelle.