Mealey's Insurance
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August 27, 2024
Professional Services Exclusion Bars Coverage For Gas Tank Explosion Suits
PHILADELPHIA — A professional services exclusion included in a policy’s coverage parts for commercial general liability and contractor's pollution liability bars coverage for two underlying negligence suits stemming from a gas tank explosion alleged to have been caused by the insureds’ negligent inspection of the tank, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming a district court’s opinion.
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August 26, 2024
Insurer Failed To Show Water Leak Did Not Cause Asbestos Contamination, Judge Says
SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in a dispute over coverage for asbestos contamination that was discovered after a water leak in an insured cabin because the insurer failed to show that the water leak was not the efficient proximate cause of the asbestos contamination.
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August 26, 2024
Insured Settles With 2 Insurers Following 3rd Circuit’s Asbestos Ruling
PHILADELPHIA — Following a settlement between an insured and two of its insurers in an asbestos coverage suit, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered an order on Aug. 23 noting that after the Third Circuit’s mandate issues, the suit will continue on remand between the insured and the two remaining insurers consistent with the Third Circuit’s late-notice ruling.
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August 26, 2024
Settlement Reached In Asbestos Coverage Dispute Between Insurer, Insured
ROME, Ga. — An insurer and an insured notified a Georgia federal judge that they reached a contingent settlement in a suit seeking a declaration that coverage is owed for an underlying asbestos bodily injury suit arising out of the insured’s talc products.
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August 21, 2024
Asbestos Plaintiffs Claim BNSF, Insurer Use ‘Float’ To Profit Off Asbestos Claims
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — BNSF Railway Co. and its insurer Zurich American Insurance Co., which were recently held liable for $8 million in asbestos-related damages by a jury, commodify asbestos claims and trade on “human suffering” by delaying payment and refusing to settle in an effort to profit off the “float” between the time when they receive claims and when they make payments, plaintiffs allege in a complaint in Montana federal court.
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August 20, 2024
Contamination, Exposure Coverage Suit Transferred From New York To Maryland
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Aug. 19 transferred an insurer’s suit seeking a coverage declaration for a number of toxic exposure and environmental contamination lawsuits filed against its insured to Maryland federal court, where the insured filed an identical lawsuit against the insurer, because the insured met its burden of showing that Maryland is the more convenient venue for the parties and witnesses.
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August 20, 2024
Stay Of Insured’s Environmental Contamination Suit Is Warranted, Ill. Panel Says
MOUNT VERNON, Ill. — A trial court did not err in granted a motion to stay an insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for underlying contamination suits arising out of the insured’s operation of a nearby landfill because the insured would not be prejudiced if its suit were stayed until the insurers’ declaratory judgment suit, filed in Missouri state court, is resolved, the Fifth District Illinois Appellate Court said in affirming the lower court’s ruling.
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August 19, 2024
Fact Issues Exist In Suit Seeking Reimbursement For Chemical Exposure Settlement
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas federal judge denied motions for summary judgment filed by two insurers in a dispute over coverage for the settlement of an underlying lawsuit arising out of an employee’s injuries caused by exposure to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other chemicals after determining that fact issues exist over whether the employee was a temporary employee or a permanent employee at the facility where he was exposed to the chemicals.
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August 19, 2024
Homeowners Say Insurer Wrongfully Denied Coverage For Mine Subsidence Damages
OWENSBORO, Ky. — An insured couple claims that an insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith by denying their claim for damages to their home caused by mine subsidence because the damages were documented and clearly caused by mine subsidence and not by earth movement or wear and tear as the insurer maintained in its coverage denial letter.
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August 19, 2024
District Court’s Collapse Ruling Was Not Clearly Erroneous, Insurer Says
CINCINNATI — A district court’s finding that no coverage is owed for a structurally unsound wall that remained standing after a portion of the wall collapsed during a building renovation was not clearly erroneous because the wall remained standing and did not collapse as required for coverage to be afforded under the policy, the insurer says in its Aug. 16 appellee brief filed in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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August 15, 2024
Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage, Exception Does Not Apply
SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer reiterates in an appellant reply brief filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a district court erred in finding that a pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for an underlying environmental contamination lawsuit because the underlying lawsuit fails to allege that there was any sudden and accidental pollution.
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August 13, 2024
Excess Insurer Must Be Reimbursed For Defenses Costs Paid In Carbon Monoxide Suit
BALTIMORE — An excess insurer is entitled to reimbursement from another insurer for defense costs incurred on behalf of an insured in an underlying suit seeking damages caused by carbon monoxide poisoning because the evidence shows that the insured timely tendered a copy of the underlying suit, which asserted covered claims under the other insurer’s policy, a Maryland federal judge said in granting the excess insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
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August 12, 2024
3rd Circuit Vacates, Remands Late-Notice Ruling In Asbestos Coverage Suit
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 9 vacated and remanded a district court’s ruling in favor of insurers in an asbestos coverage suit, agreeing with the insured that the lower court failed to consider all of the factors when applying New Jersey’s late-notice test before entering summary judgment in favor of the insurers.
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August 12, 2024
No Coverage Owed For Suit Seeking Damages For Wastewater Discharges, Judge Says
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge denied an insured’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and granted a pollution liability insurer’s motion to dismiss after determining that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling in a nearly identical case forecloses the insured’s suit that seeks coverage for an underlying lawsuit alleging that the insured illegally discharged wastewater into a city sewage treatment facility.
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August 09, 2024
California High Court Reverses Ruling In Insured’s Favor In COVID-19 Coverage Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Aug. 8 reversed an appeals court’s ruling in favor of a San Francisco restaurant owner insured in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the lower court erred by declining to enforce the specified cause of loss limitation under the policy’s “Limited Fungi, Bacteria or Virus Coverage” endorsement.
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August 08, 2024
Federal Judge Enters Order Of Dismissal In Contamination Suit Following Settlement
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge dismissed an insured’s complaint against an insurer in an environmental contamination coverage suit and dismissed the insurer’s counterclaim against the insured following a settlement between the parties.
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August 07, 2024
Insurers, Claims Administrator Seek Dismissal Of Lawsuit Over Asbestos Judgment
NEW YORK — Sparring with a man who obtained a multimillion-dollar asbestos exposure judgment against a dissolved manufacturer, a third-party claims administrator urges a New York federal court to grant its dismissal motion, arguing in its reply brief that it “has located no legal precedent to support” the man’s theory that he is “an ‘implied assignee’” of the manufacturer.
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August 06, 2024
Claims Against Defendant Insurer Alleged Owed $28.9M Are Dismissed By Stipulation
OMAHA, Neb. — Claims against one of what had been four remaining defendants in a suit National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed over a $157.2 million settlement it reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures have been dismissed with prejudice under a joint stipulation that a Nebraska federal judge granted.
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August 06, 2024
Parties Dispute ‘Insurrection,’ Other Issues In Post-Trial Appeal Of Oil Seizure Row
NEW YORK — A partial summary judgment ruling, judicial notice and a jury instruction on causation are all at issue in a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case filed by reinsurers who were ordered to pay CITGO Petroleum Corp. more than $72.5 million in a suit stemming from the February 2020 seizure of crude oil at a Venezuelan port and involving a marine cargo reinsurance policy.
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August 05, 2024
Dismissal Bid Will Go To 7th Circuit Panel In Arbitration Estoppel Row
CHICAGO — Without explanation, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ordered a dismissal motion that is based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to be taken with reinsurers’ fully briefed appeal concerning the effects of prior arbitration involving asbestos-related liabilities.
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July 31, 2024
Delaware Judge Clarifies Which Documents Are Discoverable In Paraquat Coverage Suit
WILMINGTON, Del. — Two companies that make paraquat and face underlying claims from individuals who contend that the herbicide causes Parkinson’s disease must produce any documents with legal analysis as long as those documents do not include legal recommendations from the insureds’ law firm, a Delaware judge said in enforcing a prior ruling on which documents are discoverable.
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July 30, 2024
1st Circuit Reverses Ruling In Commercial Insurer’s Favor In ‘Surface Water’ Dispute
BOSTON — Following the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s answer to a certified question that rainwater that lands and accumulates on an insured hospital building’s second-floor outdoor rooftop courtyard or its parapet roof does not unambiguously constitute “surface waters” under Massachusetts law pursuant to the commercial insurance policy, the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 29 reversed a lower federal court’s summary judgment rulings in favor of insurers.
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July 26, 2024
Insurers Owe Duty To Defend Insured Against Contaminated Well Water Suit
BUTTE, Mont. — Insurers have a duty to defend an insured for an underlying third-party complaint alleging that the insured’s negligence in installing a water well contributed to injuries sustained by tenants who consumed the well water because the insuring agreement for the primary policy’s limited pollution coverage endorsement is ambiguous and cannot be construed as a bar to coverage, a Montana federal magistrate judge said in denying the insurers’ motion for summary judgment.
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July 25, 2024
South Carolina High Court Majority Says Insurer Not Prejudiced By Late Notice
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The majority of the South Carolina Supreme Court on July 24 affirmed an appellate court’s ruling in an asbestos coverage suit, agreeing with the lower court that the insurer was not prejudiced by its insured’s late notice of the underlying asbestos exposure lawsuit and that the insured’s untimely notice was not a breach of the contract.
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July 25, 2024
Insurer Says Other Insurer Owes Coverage To Insured For Hot Tub Injury Suit
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An insurer filed suit in California federal court against another insurer, seeking a declaration that a pollution exclusion and fungi or bacteria exclusion in the other insurer’s policies do not bar coverage to a mutual insured for an underlying suit alleging that the insured’s failure to maintain a hot tub caused an individual to sustain bodily injuries.