Specialty Lines
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April 16, 2024
Excess Carriers Say Property Co. Not Covered In Antitrust Suit
Two excess insurers said they don't owe coverage to a property management company for underlying litigation alleging a price-fixing conspiracy involving software company RealPage Inc., telling a Massachusetts federal court that a professional services exclusion in the primary policy bars coverage.
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April 15, 2024
State Farm, HOA Settle Wire Fraud D&O Coverage Dispute
A State Farm unit and a property owners association reached a conditional settlement agreement in the association's suit seeking directors and officers coverage for underlying litigation stemming from a wire fraud incident, they told a California federal court.
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April 12, 2024
The Week In Trump: Catch Up On The Ex-President's Cases
Donald Trump and his legal team proved that they are nothing if not persistent as they repeatedly tried — and failed — to hit the brakes on the former president's porn star hush money trial in Manhattan.
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April 11, 2024
Norfolk's Proposed Deal Shows Risk Management Is Critical
Norfolk Southern Railway Co.'s proposed $600 million settlement with residents and businesses stemming from last year's train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, highlights the importance of a proactive risk management department and transparency between policyholders and carriers, experts say.
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April 11, 2024
Insurer AI Rules Push Self-Oversight, Leave Enforcement Hazy
State regulators across the United States that advise insurers to establish protocols for testing, documenting and governing their artificial intelligence tools are offering clarity for companies to self-regulate, but leaving the prospect of enforcement vague, experts said.
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April 11, 2024
Chubb-Archdiocese Suit Raises Coverage Burden Issue
A Chubb lawsuit against the Archdiocese of New York over indemnity for sexual abuse claims is implicating questions over which party has the burden to show if a liability might be covered or not, a dispute inextricably tied to justice for the church's many alleged victims.
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April 11, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
Louisiana's top court was asked to examine the enforceability of certain insurance contracts' arbitration clauses, the Sixth Circuit ordered a company to pay back some of the defense bill its insurer footed, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard COVID-19 coverage arguments and the Ninth Circuit rejected such arguments under Washington law.
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April 11, 2024
$24M Hidden Fee Deal Between Class, AIG Units Gets 1st OK
A California federal court granted preliminary approval of a nearly $24 million settlement between a class of travel insurance buyers and several AIG units resolving claims that the companies stacked hidden fees on top of insurance travel premiums.
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April 10, 2024
Ex-Art Institutes Execs Want Insurers To Avert $336M Suit
Former executives of a holding company that bought now-defunct for-profit colleges Argosy University, South University and The Art Institutes asked an Ohio federal court to force excess insurers to settle receivership claims before the pair are formally accused of leaving a $336 million debt in their wake.
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April 10, 2024
6th Circ. Says Firm Owes Insurer Part Of Defense Bill
A financial advisory firm's professional liability insurer had no duty to defend the company in underlying securities suits after underlying plaintiffs removed their common law violations, the Sixth Circuit ruled, further allowing the insurer to be reimbursed for some of its defense costs.
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April 10, 2024
NJ Law Firm Not Covered In Malpractice Suit, Insurer Says
A law firm in Princeton, New Jersey, is not owed coverage of a malpractice action alleging one of its attorneys misappropriated the assets of a client's husband, the firm's insurer argued, telling a federal court the firm knew of the underlying legal claims before its policy's inception.
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April 10, 2024
Ex-Trump Finance Chief Weisselberg Jailed For Perjury
A New York state judge on Wednesday sentenced former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to five months in jail for lying under oath in the attorney general's civil fraud case against Donald Trump and his business associates, imprisoning a close ally of the former president on the eve of his hush-money trial.
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April 09, 2024
Ch. 11 Judge Tosses Calif. Drug Co.'s Bid To Stay Investor Suit
A Delaware bankruptcy judge declined Tuesday to apply the automatic stay in DMK Pharmaceuticals' Chapter 11 case to a shareholder's appeal of a Delaware Chancery Court decision before the state's top court, finding the reorganization wouldn't be severely impacted if the debtor tapped an insurance policy to fund its defense.
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April 09, 2024
4th Circ. Tosses Duty To Defend Case Over Oil Co.'s Objection
The Fourth Circuit said Tuesday that a West Virginia oil and gas company lacked standing to continue an appeal that was originally brought by a green grower, which had sought coverage from its insurer for an underlying $4 million land use dispute with the extractor.
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April 09, 2024
Trump Opposes NY Monitor Probe After Exec's Perjury
Attorneys for Donald Trump argued against allowing a court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization to look into supposed discovery lapses in the New York attorney general's civil business fraud case related to a perjury plea by the company's former longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
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April 09, 2024
Ex-Frontier Communications CEO Gets $21.8M Placeholder
Frontier Communications must pay a $21.8 million litigation placeholder to ensure money is available to pay any future judgment in favor of its former CEO Leonard Tow in a feud over company-funded life insurance payments, a Connecticut Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.
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April 08, 2024
Ex-NBA Player Sues BCBS Over 'Outrageous' Care Denial
Former NBA player Rodney Rogers, who was paralyzed in 2008 after retiring, has accused Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina of exhibiting "outrageous" disregard for his medical needs by denying him life-saving in-home nursing assistance.
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April 05, 2024
SXSW Insurer Asks 5th Circ. To Rethink Coverage Ruling
The insurer of Texas music festival South by Southwest has asked a Fifth Circuit panel to rehear its case seeking to avoid covering a class action by ticket holders who didn't get refunds when the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
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April 04, 2024
Trump Fraud Appeal Spotlights Underwriting Irregularities
Donald Trump's ongoing challenge to a $465 million civil fraud judgment for a decadelong valuation fraud conspiracy raises questions about insurance procedures, how underwriters price risk and who is harmed by the alleged fraud perpetrated by the former president and his associates.
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April 04, 2024
Del. Justices Eye Atty Conduct In Medicaid Fraud Verdict
The Delaware Supreme Court handed insurers a victory when it agreed to review a ruling setting aside a favorable verdict for the carriers in a coverage dispute over an ex-Xerox unit's $236 million Medicaid fraud-related settlement, but carrier counsel's conduct may present challenges moving forward, according to a civil procedure expert.
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April 04, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Ninth Circuit heard a coverage dispute over an unsuccessful shipwreck salvaging expedition, Delaware's justices agreed to consider whether an ex-Xerox unit tried to defraud insurers into covering a $236 million settlement, and the owner of Washington, D.C., professional sports teams ended its bid for COVID-19 coverage.
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April 04, 2024
A College Professor's Approach To Insurance
A strong education is crucial to address the role insurance plays on both the personal and professional level — something University of Georgia professor Rob Hoyt demonstrates in his classroom. Here, Law360 speaks to Hoyt about how research, teaching and service guide his work.
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April 04, 2024
NY AG Wants Trump Insurer To Guarantee $175M Bond
New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a Manhattan judge Thursday to make sure the California insurer that agreed to post Donald Trump's $175 million bond in his civil business fraud case can actually pay.
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April 04, 2024
Last-Resort Insurers Grapple With Increasing Exposure
Insurance pools meant to serve as backstops for consumers shut out of traditional markets are grappling with increased exposure to natural disasters, according to experts and market data, a trend that observers say is concerning as climate change intensifies storms.
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April 04, 2024
2nd Circ. Vacates Logistics Co.'s $1.8M Damaged Cargo Win
A New York federal court erred by rejecting a Chubb unit's reimbursement bid for an over $1.8 million damaged drug shipment, the Second Circuit ruled Thursday, finding a genuine factual dispute on whether the logistics company in charge was a "contracting carrier" under an international treaty governing air shipments.
Expert Analysis
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5th Circ. Offers Expert Opinion Guidance For Insurance Cases
A recent Fifth Circuit decision in Majestic Oil v. Lloyd's of London provides insight into how Texas' concurrent causation doctrine could affect insurance cases where the cause of damage is at issue, and raises considerations for litigants faced with new or revised expert reports after the deadline has passed, say Brian Scarbrough and Cianan Lesley at Jenner & Block.
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DUI Liability Ruling Affirms SC Isn't Direct Action-Friendly
The Supreme Court of South Carolina's recent decision in Denson v. National Casualty not only clarifies the state's jurisprudence surrounding private rights of action and negligence per se, but also tacitly reinforces that South Carolina is not a direct-action state, say Anna Cathcart and Turner Albernaz at Phelps Dunbar.
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Employment-Related Litigation Risks Facing Hospitality Cos.
A close look at recent hospitality industry employment claims highlights key issues companies should keep an eye out for, and insurance policy considerations for managing risk related to wage and hour, privacy, and human trafficking claims, say Jan Larson and Huiyi Chen at Jenner & Block.
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A Look At Florida's Aggressively Pro-Insurer Tort Reform
Florida's new tort reform law is an unwarranted gift to insurance companies that seeks to strip policyholders of key rights while doing little to curb excessive litigation, say Garrett Nemeroff and Hugh Lumpkin at Reed Smith.
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Navigating High Court's Options In Insurer Choice Of Law
Depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court approaches the question of when insurers may invoke choice-of-law clauses in maritime contracts to dodge state-specific liability, the Great Lakes v. Raiders Retreat Realty decision may mean significant changes not only for admiralty law disputes, but for the insurance industry more broadly, say Lara Cassidy and Adriana Perez at Hunton.
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Practical Tips For Managing Bank D&O Liability Risk
With the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank potentially inspiring regulators to increase scrutiny of management at similar institutions, banking directors and officers should mitigate personal liability risks through keen attention to sound banking practices and regulators' announced priorities, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Establishing A Record Of Good Faith In Mediation
Viacom v. U.S. Specialty Insurance, and other recent cases, highlight the developing criteria for determining good faith participation in mediation, as well as several practical tips to establish such a record, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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Using ChatGPT To Handle Insurance Claims Is A Risky Move
ChatGPT gets some insurance law questions surprisingly wrong, and while it handles broader coverage concepts significantly better, using it to assist with coverage questions will likely lead to erroneous results and could leave insurers liable for bad faith, says Randy Maniloff at White and Williams.
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Del. Ruling Could Affect D&O Claims Beyond SPACs
A Delaware state court recently held in Clover Health v. Berkley Insurance that directors and officers of a post-merger entity were insured persons under a special-purpose acquisition company's D&O policy, a ruling that could have potential ramifications for future D&O claims in Delaware outside of SPAC deals, say Geoffrey Fehling and Janine Hanrahan at Hunton.
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A Missing Issue In 'Blank Space' Insurance Ruling
As Norwegian Hull Club v. North Star heads to trial in Florida federal court, the most interesting part of the court opinion denying summary judgment is the argument it doesn't address — contra proferentem, which could have been used to resolve the case's blank space ambiguity in the policyholder's favor, say Jeffrey Mikoni and Scott Greenspan at Pillsbury.
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High Court Ax Of Atty-Client Privilege Case Deepens Split
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury as improvidently granted maintains a three-way circuit split on the application of attorney-client privilege to multipurpose communications, although the justices have at least shown a desire to address it, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
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The Wide Oversight Implications Of Del. McDonald's Ruling
The Delaware Chancery Court's recent ruling that a McDonald's officer had oversight obligations on par with directors has wide-reaching implications for Delaware corporate law, including precedent for the court to hear sexual harassment claims, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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How Courts Are Clarifying D&O Policies' Bump-Up Provisions
The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Komatsu Mining v. Columbia Casualty provides long-awaited appellate guidance on the inadequate consideration provision in directors and officers insurance — and the Fourth Circuit may provide more in its forthcoming ruling in Towers Watson v. National Union Fire Insurance, says Andrew Paliotta at Cozen O’Connor.