Property
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March 07, 2024
Women In Insurance Law On Breaking Down Barriers
Building a better environment for women in the legal industry starts from the top, women in insurance law told Law360. To mark International Women's Day, both junior and senior women attorneys share their experiences in the industry and offer words of advice.
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March 06, 2024
Fla. Judge Relieves Insurer Of $1M Construction Defect Row
An insurer has no obligation to defend or indemnify a general contractor or subcontractor in an over $1 million faulty construction dispute, a Florida federal judge ruled, finding that the subcontractor's policies contained an unambiguous "residential construction" exclusion that clearly barred coverage.
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March 06, 2024
Power Co. Can't Escape Explosion Fraud Claim
An infrastructure supply company can't toss a fraud claim brought by an industrial company's insurers in a suit seeking to recoup $18.7 million in damages for a manufacturing facility explosion, an Ohio federal court ruled, finding that the carriers can bring both a breach of contract claim and a fraud claim.
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March 05, 2024
Calif. Justice Asks Why COVID Triggers Insurance But Not Flu
A California Supreme Court justice appeared skeptical during a hearing Tuesday that COVID-19's presence fulfills the "physical loss or damage" requirement in commercial property insurance policies under Golden State law, questioning whether COVID-19 is different from the flu with respect to property coverage and calling asbestos litigation "far afield."
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March 04, 2024
5th Circ. Says Hurricane Coverage Battle Must Be Arbitrated
A Louisiana property owner and its eight domestic insurers must arbitrate the owner's claims that they mishandled and delayed paying its Hurricane Laura property damage claim in bad faith, the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday, reversing a district court's decision that found an arbitration provision at issue unenforceable.
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March 04, 2024
Arizona Iced Tea Asks 2nd Circ. To Affirm Audit Expense Win
The maker of Arizona Iced Tea told the Second Circuit that Hanover Insurance Co. must cover additional audit expenses it incurred after a power surge erased two years' worth of financial data, arguing its "period of restoration" ended when the audit concluded, not when replacement accounting software was in place.
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February 29, 2024
9th Circ. Sends COVID-19 Coverage Row Back To Tribal Court
A Ninth Circuit panel unanimously affirmed the Suquamish Tribal Court's jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage dispute, finding in a published opinion Thursday that although the tribe's insurers weren't present on its land, a consensual business relationship means tribal law applies.
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February 29, 2024
State Farm Must Face Bad Faith Claims In $3M Crash Row
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday clarified a prior ruling reviving bad faith claims against State Farm for rejecting an offer to settle a car crash injury suit that led to a $3 million verdict, saying the insurer could still have acted in bad faith in handling the settlement offer even if it had no obligation to accept it.
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February 29, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Texas Supreme Court found that a handful of insurers may be on the hook for a $220 million bankruptcy settlement, while another state Supreme Court said it will take on underpayment claims against Geico, as insurance experts heed emerging privacy risks and prepare for more PFAS litigation. Here, Law360 takes a look at this week's top insurance news.
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February 29, 2024
Valencia Fire Renews Concerns Over Materials, Insurance
A deadly apartment fire in Valencia, Spain, is drawing renewed attention to the use of flammable materials on building exteriors, a global problem that insurance experts say implicates complicated webs of liability and a need for strong government oversight.
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February 29, 2024
Texas Justices' Unusual Remedy Presents A Win For Insurers
The Texas Supreme Court handed several carriers a victory in its ruling that a $220 million settlement between now-bankrupt Cobalt International Energy Inc. and its investors is not binding on the energy company's insurers to establish coverage, a decision notable for the unusual relief granted by the state justices, experts say.
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February 29, 2024
New AI Risks Pressure Policyholders To Fill Coverage Gaps
Growing scrutiny from the public and regulators in the U.S. over artificial intelligence use and rising threats of AI-enabled schemes are sending insurance experts scrambling to evaluate their coverage options in a rapidly changing risk environment.
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February 29, 2024
Auto Co. Says $50M Policy Endorsement Covers COVID Loss
An auto parts manufacturer is seeking $50 million in coverage for its COVID-19 pandemic-related losses in North Carolina federal court, claiming its policy's "unique" communicable disease provision was misrepresented when its insurer denied coverage for losses at its Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina locations.
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February 29, 2024
SVB Parent's Counsel Booted From Fraud Coverage Row
The bankrupt parent company of Silicon Valley Bank cannot use Farella Braun & Martel LLP as counsel in litigation over the parent company's claims that it alone must be covered for a fraud scheme that caused over $73 million in losses, a North Carolina federal court ruled.
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February 28, 2024
Insurer Wins New Trial Due To Paralegal's Surprise Testimony
An insurer will receive a new trial in its coverage dispute with two homeowners over damage caused by a water supply line failure, a Florida state appeals court ruled, finding the insurer was prejudiced by the trial court allowing a paralegal to testify as a surprise witness.
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February 28, 2024
No More Coverage For Aluminum Co.'s $165M Fire Damage
A South Carolina federal judge on Wednesday snuffed out an aluminum company's $165 million fire damage suit, ruling that its insurers had already paid up to their limits of $10 million for the molten material damage.
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February 28, 2024
Insurance Agency Says It Wasn't Told Of Airbnb Shooting Suits
A Pennsylvania insurance agency accused of concealing that a Pittsburgh Airbnb property was subject to numerous lawsuits over a mass shooting has claimed that the property owner never revealed the problems when shopping for a new policy, so it wasn't the agency's fault when the new insurer canceled coverage.
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February 28, 2024
Seattle Convention Center's Virus Losses Not Covered
A Seattle convention center operator is not owed coverage for pandemic-related business interruption losses, a Washington federal judge ruled, finding that although the governor's emergency pandemic proclamations prohibited access to the convention center, they weren't issued because of physical loss or damage to the property.
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February 28, 2024
BASF Says Insurers Owe Coverage For PFAS Suits
Major chemical manufacturer BASF Corp. told a South Carolina court Wednesday that 23 insurers should cover thousands of lawsuits that alleged a chemical the company produced for firefighting foam caused pollution and injuries.
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February 27, 2024
La. Comfort Inn Owner Ordered To Arbitrate $2.6M Storm Suit
A Louisiana federal judge has ordered the owner of a Comfort Inn outside New Orleans to arbitrate a $2.6 million suit against its insurer over coverage for damage from Hurricane Ida, saying its insurance policy compels arbitration.
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February 27, 2024
Egg Co. Not Covered For Avian Flu Losses, Minn. Judge Says
A Markel unit does not owe coverage to an egg supplier for losses it sustained due to an avian flu outbreak in 2022, a Minnesota federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that a communicable disease exclusion in a site pollution and environmental policy precluded coverage.
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February 26, 2024
Atty's Letter Is Not A Claim For Damages, Del. Justices Rule
An attorney's presuit letter claiming that Syngenta's herbicide Paraquat caused his clients' Parkinson's disease does not constitute a "claim for damages" under the company's insurance policies with a pair of Zurich units, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Monday.
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February 26, 2024
Colo. Justices To Hear If Insurers Can Withhold Some Payouts
The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday it will consider whether the state's insurance code allowed Geico, following unsuccessful settlement attempts, to refuse paying noneconomic damages to a policyholder for his underinsured motorist claim, given what Geico said is the "inherently subjective" nature of such damages.
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February 26, 2024
Mo. City Asks 8th Circ. To Revisit COVID-19 Coverage Ruling
A Missouri city urged the full Eighth Circuit Monday to reconsider a panel decision that denied its request for coverage for sales tax revenue losses resulting from shutdowns related to COVID-19, saying the panel misinterpreted the policy's terms and skewed its review in favor of the insurer.
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February 26, 2024
Liberty Cuts Off Drivers' Rentals Too Soon, Suit Claims
Liberty Mutual systematically and arbitrarily ends replacement transportation coverage after seven days for policyholders whose vehicles are totaled in collisions, in violation of its own policy language, a proposed class action alleges.
Expert Analysis
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Courts Should Heed Contract Law In COVID-19 Physical Loss
While a recent Law360 guest article urged courts to adopt the particle theory of coverage in deciding COVID-19-related property loss and damage claims, this approach ignores the intent, function and language of commercial insurance policies — not to mention the science itself, say Adam Fleischer and Elisabeth Ross at BatesCarey.
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Insurance Brokers Should Expect Wave Of E&O Claims
Policyholders' unsuccessful COVID-19 business interruption suits and the pandemic-related move to remote work will likely result in a plethora of errors and omissions claims brought against insurance agents and brokers, as evidenced by recently filed cases, says Peter Biging at Goldberg Segalla.
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COVID Insurance Rulings Are Misinterpreting 'Physical Loss'
Recent court decisions interpreting "direct physical loss" clauses to deny COVID-19 business interruption recovery where the subject property has not been structurally altered contradict the purpose of all-risks insurance, the ordinary meaning of the operative policy language and pre-pandemic case law, says Lee Epstein at Flaster Greenberg.
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Revamping Law Firm Marketing Lists — With Partner Buy-In
Jackson Lewis’ Paige Bowser shares lessons from the firm's recent overhaul of an outdated email marketing database, including tips for getting partners on board, ensuring compliance with privacy laws and augmenting outreach strategies.
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Courts Should Defer To Science On COVID-19 Physical Loss
As litigation of pandemic-related business interruption claims continues nationwide, the insurance carriers and courts adopting the most conservative interpretation of "physical loss or damage" — the basic trigger for business interruption coverage — are making erroneous assumptions about a complex physical phenomenon, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes and Boone.
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The Murky World Of Legal Rankings Gets Some Clarity In NJ
New Jersey's new, stringent approach to legal rankings will make accolade advertising more transparent, benefiting both attorneys and clients and offering legal marketers a new set of best practices amid evolving standards, say Penny Paul at Lowenstein Sandler and Susan Peters at Greybridge.
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Embracing ESG: Cigna Counsel Talks Employee Wellness
Building employee well-being into corporate environmental, social and governance priorities required our legal team to focus more closely on cross-functional collaboration within the company and increased communication with our board of directors and shareholders, says Julia Brncic at Cigna.
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Hybrid Work Models Are Key To Gender Parity In Law Firms
To curb the historically high rates of attrition among female lawyers, Roberta Liebenberg at Fine Kaplan and Stephanie Scharf at Scharf Banks suggest firms must normalize hybrid work schedules, and they recommend best practices to promote engagement among all attorneys, regardless of where they work.
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An Insurer's Guide To Policyholder Bankruptcy
Given the increased likelihood of policyholders filing bankruptcy petitions in the wake of the pandemic, insurance professionals must be aware of five basic principles when dealing with an insured in bankruptcy, says Eric Fitzgerald at Goldberg Segalla.
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Attorneys Beware: Zoom Depositions Are Likely Inadmissible
As legal proceedings have moved online in light of the pandemic, lawyers may mistakenly believe that recorded Zoom video depositions can be entered as evidence, but without certain safeguards, the testimony is unlikely to be accepted by courts, says Phillip Zisook at Schoenberg Finkel.
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NJ Policyholders Could Still See Recovery For COVID Losses
Although New Jersey state and federal courts have decided the majority of dispositive motions in COVID-19 business interruption insurance cases in favor of insurers, policyholders retain a plausible path to recovery depending on the nature of their loss and the precise policy language at issue, say Lee Epstein and Matthew Goldstein at Flaster Greenberg.
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COVID Rulings May Support Ransomware Insurance Denials
A recent spate of pandemic-related insurance decisions — where federal courts found that a temporary inability to use property doesn't qualify as physical loss or damage for coverage purposes — may be used as favorable precedent by cyber insurers denying ransomware loss claims for temporary inability to access data, say Thomas Caswell and Peter Kelly Golfman at Zelle.
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3 Risk Management Lessons From Pandemic Insurance Wars
As appellate decisions in COVID-19 business interruption insurance claims continue to clarify the state of the law, there are some things that policyholders' lawyers and risk managers can do in the meantime to help prepare for future unforeseen events affecting coverage, says Peter Halprin at Pasich.