Mealey's Insurance
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February 11, 2025
Insurer Maintains No Coverage Owed For Remediation Costs
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — No coverage is owed for investigation and remediation costs as a result of contamination discovered at and near the site of an insured dry cleaning business because no suit has been filed against the insured and because the policy pollution exclusion bars coverage, an insurer says in its reply in support of its motion for summary judgment filed in New Mexico federal court.
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February 11, 2025
Insureds Failed To Show Additional Coverage Owed For Asbestos Removal, Judge Says
DALLAS — Insureds seeking additional coverage for the removal of asbestos in their home failed to show that additional coverage is afforded under their homeowners policy for removal of asbestos that was not related to the insureds’ claim for water damage in their home, a Texas federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the insureds’ breach of contract and extracontractual claims.
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February 07, 2025
Jurisdiction Issue Triggers Amended Complaint In Row Involving Legionnaires’
DETROIT — At the direction of a Michigan federal judge who said the initial pleading didn’t adequately show diversity of citizenship, a captive insurer filed an amended complaint over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease, alleging breach of a reinsurance agreement and seeking declaratory judgment.
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February 04, 2025
Judge: Subcontractors’, Contractor’s Insurers Owe Defense In Gym Water Leak Suit
LOS ANGELES — The “broad duty to defend” was triggered for both a contractor and two subcontractors in an underlying suit over damage from a water leak, a California federal judge found, leading her to partly grant the subcontractors’ motions to dismiss the commercial general liability (CGL) insurer’s suit seeking declarations that it was not obligated to provide coverage.
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February 04, 2025
Toxic Exposure, Contamination Suit Stayed To Allow Settlement Talks To Continue
GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge granted a joint motion to stay proceedings in an insured’s suit seeking coverage for underlying toxic exposure and environmental contamination lawsuits to allow the insured and its insurer to continue settlement negotiations.
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February 04, 2025
Competing Motions Filed In Asbestos Coverage Suit On Effect Of Noncumulation Clause
PITTSBURGH — An insured maintains in a motion for partial summary judgment filed in Pennsylvania federal court that a noncumulation clause included in one of its excess insurer’s policies should not be enforced because the policy was changed to conform with an underlying umbrella policy; however, the excess insurer says in its motion for partial summary judgment that the noncumulation clause must be enforced to reduce the limit of liability under the policy and the amount owed to the insured for asbestos liabilities.
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February 04, 2025
Insurer Says Order Of Default Warranted Against Insureds In Debris Disposal Suit
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — An insurer filed a motion for default in Illinois federal court, maintaining that the court should enter an order of default against its insureds for failing to respond to the insurer’s second amended complaint, which seeks a declaration that its policy’s asbestos exclusion and pollution exclusion bar coverage for the alleged improper disposal of construction debris by the insured.
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February 03, 2025
Judge Dismisses Cross-Claims Between Insurers, Subcontractor In Mold Damage Coverage Suit
LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Nevada issued two orders dismissing with prejudice cross-claims between professional liability insurers and a subcontractor in a mold and moisture damage coverage dispute.
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January 31, 2025
Majority Affirms Ruling In Insurers’ Favor In Bad Faith Suit Over Flood Deductible
NEW ORLEANS — A majority of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a lower federal court did not err in determining that the extrinsic evidence resolved an ambiguity in favor of the insurers’ interpretation of a policy flood deductible, affirming the lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the insurers in a general contractor’s bad faith lawsuit arising from flood damage at a hotel renovation.
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January 28, 2025
Reinsurer To 6th Circuit: Arbitration Awards Can Be Basis For Collateral Estoppel
CINCINNATI — Arguing in part that “judicial review of arbitration awards is still available under the Federal Arbitration Act,” a reinsurer urged the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling that collateral estoppel applies to a defense costs dispute concerning asbestos lawsuits.
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January 28, 2025
Suit Seeking Coverage For Chemical Exposure Injuries Removed To Federal Court
SEATTLE — An insurer acted in bad faith and breached its contract by withdrawing its defense of an insured in an underlying suit alleging that a couple’s exposure to chemicals distributed by the insured caused the couple’s child to be born with spina bifida, the insured says in a complaint removed by the insurer to Washington federal court.
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January 28, 2025
Insurers Owe Defense, Indemnity For Underlying PFAS, AFFF Suits, Insured Says
SAN FRANCISCO — An insured maintains in its reply in support of its partial motion for summary judgment, filed in California federal court, that its insurers owe coverage for underlying bodily injury and property damage lawsuits related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allegedly contained in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) that were manufactured, sold and distributed by the insured because the underlying suits are potentially covered under the policies and the insurers failed to prove that their policies’ pollution exclusion bars coverage.
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January 27, 2025
J&J Wants 2nd Look At Ruling Nixing Insurance After $4.69B Talc Verdict
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — An insurer opposed Johnson & Johnson’s request for reconsideration after a judge in New Jersey concluded that subsequent victories in asbestos-talc cases do not alter the fact that a Missouri jury awarded $4.69 billion in a case against the company and found that it acted in a reprehensible manner, putting the verdict outside the terms of insurance policies because the state forbids insuring punitive damages and the policies cover only accidental injuries.
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January 27, 2025
Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Claims In Asbestos Abatement Dispute Fail
GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal magistrate judge granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment on breach of contract and bad faith claims after determining that the insured failed to support her claims that the insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith in its handling of the insured’s claim for asbestos abatement and a full roof replacement.
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January 24, 2025
6th Circuit Denies Building Owner, Contractor’s Rehearing Petitions In Collapse Suit
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied petitions for rehearing filed by a building owner and a contractor, refusing to reconsider a panel’s finding that coverage is owed only for a portion of a wall that collapsed in a building that was undergoing renovation.
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January 24, 2025
Federal Court Dismisses Hospital’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit Following Settlement
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal court dismissed without prejudice a hospital insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic after the insured and its commercial property insurer announced that they reached a settlement.
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January 23, 2025
Insurer Must Cover Asbestos Defendant’s Defense Costs, Judge Says
NEW ORLEANS — An insurance policy obligates an insurer to cover costs associated with defending against an asbestos action regardless of whether the expenses came before or after notice of the action, a federal judge in Louisiana said in granting summary judgment in a cross-claim.
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January 22, 2025
Insurer’s Silica Dust Coverage Suit Transferred From Minnesota To California
MINNEAPOLIS — An insurer’s suit seeking a coverage declaration for underlying silica dust exposure suits filed against an insured must be transferred to California federal court where a similar suit filed by the insured is pending because the insured filed the California suit before the insurer filed its suit in Minnesota federal court, a Minnesota federal judge said Jan. 21 in granting the insured’s motion to transfer.
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January 22, 2025
Bid To Compel Production Of Reinsurance Info Denied In Cleanup Costs Dispute
PADUCAH, Ky. — Saying in part that “neither claims manuals and guidelines nor reinsurance-related documents are relevant to Phase I of this litigation,” a Kentucky federal magistrate judge denied a motion to compel production in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.
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January 21, 2025
Oral Arguments Set In Dispute Over Insured’s Knowledge Of Contamination
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a docket note on Jan. 17 setting oral arguments for March 7 of an insured’s appeal of a district court’s ruling that coverage is barred for contamination cleanup costs caused by the release of petroleum and other contaminants from an underground storage tank at a gas station.
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January 21, 2025
Condo Association Files Complaint, Says Hidden Damage Covered Under Policy
SEATTLE — A property insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith when it denied a condominium association’s claim for hidden water damage because the hidden damage was caused by a covered cause of loss and is not excluded under the policies at issue, an insured contends in a complaint filed in Washington federal court.
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January 17, 2025
Declaratory Judgment Suit Focuses On Reinsurance, Legionnaires’ Disease Claims
DETROIT — Alleging breach of a reinsurance agreement and seeking declaratory judgment, a captive insurer filed a lawsuit in Michigan federal court over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease.
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January 16, 2025
Shipbuilder Creditor Appeals Asbestos Debtor’s Insurer Settlement Protections
RICHMOND, Va. — Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., a frequent co-defendant of Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. in asbestos cases, has appealed a Virginia federal bankruptcy judge’s approval of an $18 million settlement between the debtor and insurers, saying in its statement of issues on appeal that a U.S. district court must decide whether the approval order’s inclusion of a “nonconsensual third party release and non-debtor discharge and corresponding injunction” amounts to reversable error.
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January 14, 2025
Insureds Say Pollution Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage For Remediation Costs
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for investigation and remediation costs incurred by insureds as a result of contamination discovered at and near the site of an insured dry cleaning business because the pollution exclusion is ambiguous and must be construed in favor of coverage, the insureds maintain in response to an insurer’s motion for summary judgment filed in New Mexico federal court.
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January 14, 2025
Judge Refuses To Reconsider Ruling On Request To Transfer Silica Coverage Suit
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied an insurer’s motion to reconsider a ruling on the denial of the insurer’s request to transfer an insured’s suit seeking coverage for underlying bodily injury suits arising out of silica dust exposure to Minnesota federal court because the insurer failed to show that there are new issues of material fact that were not previously considered by the court.