By James Dorion and Stephen Hoke ( October 13, 2017, 2:38 PM EDT) -- Complaints that are silent as to the claimant's date of first exposure (DOFE) raise issues that can metastasize into serious and protracted conflicts between policyholders and insurers. In this situation, a DOFE must be selected to trigger an insurer's defense duty — or sometimes to use as a proxy to begin allocation of the defense and indemnity costs for all claims (default DOFE). The most troubling manifestation of this issue is when an umbrella or excess insurer refuses to accept claims of primary policy exhaustion because allocation of loss was based on a default DOFE. This article examines default DOFE disputes and how the appellate court in R.T. Vanderbilt Company Inc. v. Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co., 171 Conn. App. 61 (March 7, 2017), addressed the issue....