Mealey's Insurance : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Insurance

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
July 24, 2024
Mass. High Court: ‘Surface Water’ Meaning Is Ambiguous As To Rainwater Accumulation

BOSTON — Answering a question from the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded July 23 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, resolving the ambiguity in favor of the insured in a water damage coverage dispute.
July 23, 2024
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Gasoline Leak, Panel Says In Reversing

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s ruling entered against an insurer in a coverage dispute over damages caused by a gasoline leak because the policy’s pollution exclusion applies as a bar to coverage based on the conclusion that gasoline is a pollutant when it leaks from an underground storage tank and damages a neighboring property.
July 22, 2024
Contamination, Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Coronavirus Losses

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Court of Appeals on July 19 affirmed a trial court’s ruling in favor of all-risk insurers that denied coverage for COVID-19 losses sustained by an insured because the policies’ contamination or pollution exclusion bars coverage for any contamination, seepage or pollution that endangers or threatens to endanger the health, safety or welfare of individuals.
July 22, 2024
Decades-Old MOU Is Focus Of Lawsuit Over Reinsurance Billings Dispute

LOS ANGELES — Suing two English reinsurers in a California court in a dispute over “millions” in reinsurance billings arising from asbestos bodily injury claims, an insurer alleges that an incorrect interpretation of a 1984 memorandum of understanding (MOU) is at the root of their refusal to pay.
July 19, 2024
Questions Of Fact Remain In Asbestos Bodily Injury Coverage Suit, Judge Says

ROME, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge denied an insured’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a suit seeking a declaration that coverage is owed for an underlying asbestos bodily injury suit after determining that questions of fact exist regarding whether asbestos exclusions apply as a bar to coverage and whether the underlying plaintiff’s injuries were caused by asbestos in the insured’s talc products.
July 18, 2024
4th Circuit Denies Petition For Rehearing In Chemical Exposure Coverage Dispute

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insurer’s petition for rehearing and for rehearing en banc after determining that the insurer’s petition was not timely filed following the appeals panel’s ruling in the chemical exposure coverage suit.
July 17, 2024
Judge Allows Unfair Settlement Practices Claim To Proceed Against Insurer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge denied a pollution liability insurer’s motion to dismiss a claim alleging violation of the West Virginia Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act (UCSPA) because the insureds sufficiently stated facts in support of the claim and because it is not clear from the face of the insureds’ amended complaint that the UCSPA claim is time-barred under the applicable statute of limitations.
July 17, 2024
Fact Issues Remain On Whether Pollution Exclusion Applies To Coronavirus Losses

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of the applicability of a pollution and contamination exclusion after determining that questions of fact exist as to whether the exclusion bars coverage for business losses sustained by an insured in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the judge granted the insurer’s motion on a bad faith claim after determining that the claim cannot survive because a legitimate coverage dispute exists.
July 16, 2024
Stay In Asbestos Liability Suit Lifted Following Arbitrator’s Ruling

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge lifted a stay in an insured’s suit seeking coverage for more than $12 million in defense and indemnity costs for asbestos claims following an arbitrator’s ruling that the policies at issue are not subject to mandatory arbitration.
July 16, 2024
Texas High Court Requests Response From Insurer In Benzene Coverage Dispute

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court requested that an insured file a response to an insurer’s petition for review of a Texas appellate court’s ruling that a policy’s arbitration provision applies only to disputes arising under the insurance policy and not to disputes arising under a settlement pertaining to benzene-related claims filed against the insured.
July 16, 2024
General Contractor Appeals No Coverage Ruling In Suit Over Faulty Stucco Claims

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A general contractor filed a notice in a South Carolina federal court indicating that it is seeking the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ review of the court’s finding that an insurer owed no coverage for damages caused after stormwater seeped through faulty stucco because the damage is not the result of an “occurrence” under the terms of the policy.
July 16, 2024
Stay Lifted After 7th Circuit Denies Insurers’ Petition In Environmental Suit

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Following the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ denial of a petition for permission to file an interlocutory appeal in an environmental contamination coverage suit, an Illinois federal judge lifted a stay of the suit that was entered while the insurers’ petition for permission to file an interlocutory appeal was pending.
July 15, 2024
Trial Court Failed To Consider Prior Duty-To-Defend Ruling, Indiana Panel Says

INDIANAPOLIS — A trial court erred in finding that an insurer had no duty to defend its insured after it was dismissed as a defendant from an underlying chemical exposure bodily injury suit filed in Taiwan because the trial court failed to consider a prior ruling on the duty to defend one of the insured’s related entities entered in the first lawsuit filed by the insured, the Indiana Court of Appeals said in reversing and remanding the trial court’s judgment.