Property
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April 26, 2024
Insurer Can't Avoid Coverage Suit Against Escrow Agent
First American Title Insurance Co. must continue to be a party in Wesco Insurance Co.'s declaratory action seeking to avoid covering claims that Wesco's insureds improperly diverted escrow funds in real estate transactions to third parties with no valid claims to the funds, a Florida federal court ruled.
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April 25, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
A New York state panel partially revived Chubb's coverage dispute with an archdiocese over underlying sexual abuse claims, Ralph Lauren got the green light to pursue its appeal for coverage of damages stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and former President Donald Trump solidified a $175 million bond.
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April 25, 2024
Driving Data Suits Highlight Auto Privacy, Insurance Risks
A spate of suits charging General Motors with harvesting driver data without permission and sharing it with data broker LexisNexis Risk Solutions highlights policyholder privacy risks and erosion of trust over extensive auto data collection, experts told Law360.
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April 25, 2024
5th Circ. May Ponder If Threats Are Claims In Healthcare Suit
The Fifth Circuit will review Monday if a healthcare company is covered for a more than $200,000 settlement over mistakenly approving out-of-state treatment for a Florida Medicaid patient, with the case potentially hinging on whether a letter threatening litigation against another party constitutes a claim. Here, Law360 breaks down the case in advance of oral arguments.
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April 25, 2024
Fla. High Court Says PIP Law Doesn't Mandate 100% Payment
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Allstate Insurance Co. is not required to pay 100% of a chiropractic provider's charges under a personal injury protection policy, saying to enact such a requirement would misread both Florida's PIP law and Allstate's policy.
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April 25, 2024
New PFAS Rules Portend More Insurance, Superfund Suits
New rules from the Environmental Protection Agency designating as hazardous so-called forever chemicals, and limiting those toxic chemicals in water supplies, are likely to contribute to a wave of insurance litigation over liabilities, while potentially posing new coverage implications for companies involved in Superfund sites.
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April 25, 2024
Emotional Damages Not Covered In OD Suit, Pa. Justices Rule
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reversed a lower court's ruling that a Nationwide unit had a duty to defend two homeowners in a suit over a man's fatal overdose under their roof, holding Thursday that underlying emotional distress damages don't fall within the policy's definition of bodily injury.
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April 25, 2024
Insurance Backs Up College Athletes About To Turn Pro
As the NFL draft begins, experts tell Law360 how changing circumstances make it ever more important for athletes transitioning from the college to professional level to secure insurance coverage, should an injury derail a pro career.
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April 24, 2024
Condo Group Says Insurer Is Blowing Off Wind, Hail Damage
Greater New York Mutual Insurance Co. has moved to federal court an Ohio non-profit condominium community's state court lawsuit accusing it of lowballing the group's wind and hail damage costs and then refusing to engage in their agreed-upon appraisal process.
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April 24, 2024
Samsung Unit Says Exclusion Doesn't Apply To Storm Losses
A Samsung unit seeking coverage for more than $400 million in damage to its semiconductor manufacturing facility related to Winter Storm Uri in 2021 asked a Texas federal court to rule that power loss during the storm did not trigger the policy's so-called lack of services exclusion.
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April 23, 2024
HUD Finalizes Rule Raising Building Standards In Flood Zones
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published a rule on Tuesday setting stricter flood-protection standards for homes built or fixed with funds from the agency in an effort to manage storm risk and rising insurance costs.
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April 22, 2024
Ralph Lauren Can Continue Appeal Of COVID Coverage Loss
The Third Circuit on Monday lifted a stay that sidelined a Ralph Lauren Corp. appeal of a district judge's ruling that the fashion retailer failed to show insurable physical damage to stores from the COVID-19 pandemic, sending the case to an appellate motions panel with three similar actions.
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April 19, 2024
Insurers Push To Arbitrate Hurricane Damage Case
An arbitrator should decide whether a Louisiana property owner's hurricane damage claims must be arbitrated, a group of surplus lines insurers argued in urging the Second Circuit to reject a New York district court's reliance on the circuit's precedent to find the arbitration clause at issue unenforceable.
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April 19, 2024
CORRECTED: Fla. Jury Says AIG Mishandled Claim For Irma Damage
A Florida federal jury on Friday found that AIG mishandled part of the claims process for damage from Hurricane Irma to a $95 million oceanfront mansion near Miami but declined to award punitive damages against the insurer.
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April 19, 2024
The Week In Trump: NY Trial And A High Court Date Loom
Despite a few snags, jury selection for Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan unfolded relatively quickly, clearing the way for opening statements Monday in the historic case as the former president prepped for a U.S. Supreme Court debate over his supposed immunity.
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April 18, 2024
Justices' Corporate Disclosure Ruling Dodges D&O Upheaval
A U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited when securities fraud claims can be brought for a failure to disclose information relieved policyholder experts, who told Law360 that the justices avoided major consequences for directors and officers policies.
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April 18, 2024
Mich. High Court Takes Up Insurer Garnishment Dispute
The Michigan Supreme Court agreed Thursday to consider whether an insurer's supposed bad faith refusal to settle a claim can be litigated in a garnishment action in The Burlington Insurance Co.'s appeal of an injured worker's attempt to collect the unsatisfied portion of a $13.7 million judgment.
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April 18, 2024
Four Environmental Issues Insurers Eye On Earth Day
From questions over climate disclosure rules to a rapidly increasing landscape of flood risk, Earth Day this year offers a chance to take stock of how much climate change has affected the insurance industry and the consumers that rely on it for disaster relief. Here, ahead of the annual quasi-holiday on April 22, Law360 looks at some of the most important insurance trends and stories related to the environment.
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April 18, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
California's attorney general stepped into an unfair competition dispute with State Farm, Allstate demanded that a former contractor stop spreading lies, a session replay suit against Liberty Mutual was paused, and the Eleventh Circuit pondered whether an insurer should pay a nonapportioned settlement.
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April 18, 2024
Ohtani Theft Scandal Loads Bases For Insurance Claims
The embezzlement and sports betting scandal that has ensnared Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter could implicate a range of insurance and civil litigation possibilities, coverage experts say, pointing to criminal allegations that Ohtani was defrauded of $16 million.
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April 17, 2024
No Redo For Insurer In Hail Damage Dispute, Judge Says
A Texas federal court refused to rethink its ruling denying an insurer's early win in a hail damage coverage dispute with a textile company, saying the insurer provided no new information that could change the court's finding or establish the court's manifest error.
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April 17, 2024
Insurer Owes No More Water Damage Coverage, Court Says
A Nationwide unit was required to pay only $5,000 to a Tennessee building's owner after water from a sewer or drain pipe backed up and overflowed within, a Tennessee federal court ruled, finding a water damage exclusion in the company's policy made a $5,000 sublimit applicable.
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April 16, 2024
5th Circ. Rejects La. Homeowners' Repeat Hurricane Claim
The Fifth Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a Louisiana couple's proposed class action alleging that their insurer's method of evaluating their Hurricane Ida property damage violated state law, affirming that a previous, related lawsuit the couple filed barred the present claim from coverage.
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April 16, 2024
11th Circ. Asks If Undivided Settlement Can Still Be Covered
An Eleventh Circuit panel seemed torn Tuesday on whether to allow insurance coverage for a $557,000 nonapportioned Georgia federal settlement that potentially included both covered theft and noncovered negligent deconstruction, awarded to a Georgia mill owner who hired the insured.
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April 15, 2024
Geico Must Arbitrate Fraud Claims Against Chiropractors
The Third Circuit held in a precedential opinion Monday that Geico must arbitrate three lawsuits accusing chiropractic practices of providing unnecessary services totaling $10 million, pointing to documentation indicating that disputes connected to personal injury protection benefits must be resolved out of court.
Expert Analysis
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2 Reasons Why Ill. Virus Coverage Ruling Is Significant
An Illinois federal court's recent decision in Dental Experts v. Massachusetts Bay Insurance is especially useful due to the scarcity of relevant pandemic-related business interruption case law involving first-party policies, and because it clarifies how the cause test should be applied in similar cases, say Christopher Kuleba and Adrienne Kitchen at Reed Smith.
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Tracking Class Certification Changes, 1 Year After TransUnion
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's TransUnion v. Ramirez decision, defense lawyers have invoked it as support for denying class certification or decertifying classes — but an analysis suggests that the main impact of the ruling has simply been closer scrutiny of class definitions by district courts, say James Morsch and Jonathan Singer at Saul Ewing.
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What's At Stake In Fla. Insurance Appraisal Case
The Florida Supreme Court's decision in Weston Property & Casualty Insurance v. Riverside Club Condominium Association, determining whether trial courts should have discretion to sequence appraisal and fraud in insurance disputes, will influence how claims are handled on a national basis, say attorneys at Reed Smith.
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Hurricane Insurance Prep Is Key For Fla. Condos And HOAs
As this year's hurricane season gets underway, Florida associations for homeowners, condos and communities should review their insurance policies and protocols in advance of potential inclement weather, says Kelly Corcoran at Ball Janik.
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Property Insurance Coverage Can Hinge On 'Riot' Or 'Protest'
As protests erupt across the U.S. in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Alycen Moss and Elliot Kerzner at Cozen O'Connor examine important property insurance questions that depend on whether a gathering of people is classified as a protest or a riot.
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Lessons From Calif. Liability Claim Recoupment Ruling
A recent California federal court decision in Evanston Insurance v. Winstar Properties illustrates the perils of insurer recoupment and underscores the importance of assessing recoupment rights, if any, throughout the claims process, say Geoffrey Fehling and Veronica Adams at Hunton.
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Recent Decisions Are Eroding All-Risk Insurance Coverage
All-risk insurance coverage is under siege by insurers' broad interpretations of established exclusions, and recent decisions in New Jersey and New Hampshire have shown that courts may not protect coverage despite the policies' text and intent, says Nicholas Insua at Reed Smith.
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Exploring Calif. Wildfire Insurance's Legislative Landscape
As California wildfire season approaches, elected officials and insurance companies continue to face the task of finding long-term solutions, including an increasingly important role for mitigation efforts by individual homeowners and business owners in order to protect their property, say Jan Larson and Jenna Conwisar at Jenner & Block.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.