General Liability
-
June 20, 2024
Novel Vermont Polluter Law Raises Insurance Liability Issues
A new Vermont law requiring fossil fuel companies to fund projects ameliorating the negative effects of climate change could raise questions about what constitutes a covered occurrence and how pollution exclusions may apply, while also igniting choice-of-law disputes, experts say.
-
June 20, 2024
Insurer Hit With Coverage Suit Over Ohio Grocery Shooting
Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle Inc. is claiming that a security contractor's insurer, Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co., has refused to cover its defense costs in a lawsuit over a shooting at a Cleveland, Ohio, store, and was trying to get the grocer to drop its third-party claims against the contractor.
-
June 20, 2024
2nd Circ. Affirms AIG's Win In Ex-Atty's Retaliation Suit
A former legal executive's retaliation lawsuit against American International Group Inc. has fizzled out as the Second Circuit on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling that found he was not fired for blowing the whistle on alleged fraud.
-
June 20, 2024
Nationwide Wins Mich. Combined Filing Tax Fight On Appeal
Nationwide entities can file as a unitary business in Michigan to share tax credits across their group members, the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, overturning a state tax tribunal decision that said insurance companies were required to file separate returns.
-
June 18, 2024
'Reckless' Behavior Centered In Climate Coverage Suit Args
Attorneys for a Sunoco subsidiary and AIG offered sharply differing views to Hawaii's top court Tuesday in oral arguments over whether reckless behavior would trigger the oil company's liability coverage in a novel suit over coverage for underlying climate change claims.
-
June 18, 2024
Condo's Historic Location Doesn't Bar Bombing Coverage
The insurer for a Nashville, Tennessee, condominium owners association cannot use a historic structures exclusion to dodge covering the repair costs associated with damage caused by a bombing on Christmas Day 2020, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
-
June 18, 2024
AIG Unit Says Exclusions Bar Pet Supply Co.'s BIPA Claims
An AIG unit has told a Michigan federal court a pet supply store isn't owed defense for an underlying class action brought by employees alleging the store violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, maintaining that a "recording and distribution" exclusion and "employment-related practices exclusion" were triggered.
-
June 18, 2024
Life Insurance Fraudster Deserves Tax Penalties, 7th Circ. Told
The IRS urged the Seventh Circuit to maintain nearly $400,000 in fraud penalties assessed against an Illinois man who pled guilty to falsifying his tax returns as part of a scheme to poison his wife and collect on a $20 million life insurance policy.
-
June 18, 2024
Insurers Must Keep Defending Heating Oil Co. In Class Suit
Two Crum & Forster units must continue defending a heating oil company and several executives in a class action claiming the company provided oil with elevated levels of biodiesel that caused property damage, a Massachusetts federal court ruled, saying the policies' "failure to supply" provisions do not limit or exclude coverage.
-
June 17, 2024
Excess Insurers May Need To Pay In Kaiser Asbestos Dispute
A policyholder can tap into first-layer excess policies as soon as the primary coverage for that period is exhausted, the California Supreme Court ruled, potentially implicating several first-level excess insurers to contribute to coverage for underlying asbestos exposure claims against Kaiser Cement and Gypsum Corp.
-
June 17, 2024
NY Archdiocese Wants Abuse Coverage Suit Tossed
The Archdiocese of New York sought dismissal of Chubb's bid to evade coverage of over 1,700 underlying sexual abuse claims brought under the Child Victims Act, filing counterclaims with a state court alleging that the carrier has wrongfully refused coverage and must indemnify the organization in the underlying claims.
-
June 17, 2024
Insurers Ask 6th Circ. To Undo $13.3M Murder Coverage Loss
Two Liberty Mutual units said their insurers must reimburse them for a $13.3 million judgment stemming from a murder in a Florida motel, urging the Sixth Circuit on Monday to toss a lower court's ruling that a demand letter in the underlying suit didn't constitute a claim for bad faith.
-
June 14, 2024
Tata Must Pay $168M For Trade Secret Theft, Texas Judge Says
A Texas federal judge has ordered Tata Consultancy to pay $168 million for willfully misappropriating an IT company's trade secrets concerning source code and life insurance software documentation, plus $25 million in prejudgment interest.
-
June 14, 2024
Insurer Seeks Quick Exit In Casino $130M COVID Loss Suit
The insurer of a casino operator with properties on the Las Vegas strip and beyond told a Nevada federal judge to toss a $130 million COVID-19 pandemic loss coverage suit, arguing it had already paid $1 million — the only benefits due under the all-risk policy.
-
June 14, 2024
Trucking Co. Whittles $11.5M Suit Over Stolen Cellphones
A North Carolina federal court pared an $11.5 million lawsuit brought by a cellphone dealer and its insurer after a truckload of devices was stolen, reasoning that a negligence claim was preempted.
-
June 13, 2024
Top Specialty Lines Decisions From The First Half Of 2024
The first half of this year brought notable pro-policyholder rulings in specialty insurance disputes on the applicability of contract exclusions and related-acts provisions, but also some rulings giving insurers a leg up when it comes to choice-of-law clauses in maritime insurance contracts and bump-up exclusions. Here, Law360 breaks down the top specialty lines decisions so far in 2024.
-
June 13, 2024
Youth Org. Not Covered For Ex-Worker's Claim, 6th Circ. Rules
A sexual misconduct exclusion bars a youth advocacy organization's bid for coverage of an ex-employee's claim that they were sexually harassed and assaulted by a supervisor, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Thursday, saying the organization's failure to raise certain arguments before the district court was fatal to its appeal.
-
June 13, 2024
High Court Sticks To Status Quo In Insurance-Packed Term
The U.S. Supreme Court embraced an insurance-packed docket in its current term, tackling thorny coverage issues head on or indirectly, hewing close to the status quo in decisions whose impact will be felt by insurers and policyholders across the industry. Here, Law360 reviews the top insurance-related decisions issued this term.
-
June 13, 2024
Prudential Investors Get Final OK On $35M Settlement
A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday granted final approval to a $35 million class action settlement between Prudential Financial Inc. and shareholders who alleged the company hid the risks associated with the purchase of thousands of life insurance policies.
-
June 13, 2024
NJ Justices Create New Liability Rule For Property Owners
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-3 to craft a new rule stating that owners of commercial vacant lots have a duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting the lots, and reinstated a woman's trip-and-fall injury suit.
-
June 13, 2024
Calif. Insurance Chief Proposes Key Tradeoff In Reform Bid
Insurers in California will need to weigh whether the financial benefits of using new risk models to price policies is worth increasing their risk exposure in some of the state's most fire-prone areas following newly proposed rules from state insurance regulators.
-
June 13, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Eighth Circuit pondered whether Geico was responsible for an HPV infection, a Michigan court said lies could eliminate a dead man's payout, a Texas roofer was told that public adjusting wasn't a free-speech matter, and House of Cards' California suit withstood an insurer's attempt to knock it down.
-
June 13, 2024
Insurer Calls Convicted Mogul's $633M IOU 'Worthless' Ruse
Convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg has offered a "worthless" $633 million promise as a ruse to end an insurance company's bid to collect a $524 million arbitration award, a North Carolina federal court heard this week.
-
June 13, 2024
NJ Judge Denies Liberty Mutual's Recusal Bid in Accident Suit
A New Jersey federal judge will not step away from a construction accident coverage suit, ruling Liberty Mutual's recusal bid, which cited his failure to disclose his multiple policies with the insurer and a previous investigation over a missing jewelry claim, would potentially block hundreds of judges from presiding over similar cases.
-
June 13, 2024
Insurance Cases Remain High Despite 2023 Downturn
Though insurance litigation in federal district courts took a slight dip in 2023, diverging from the upward trend that insurance cases have exhibited since 2016, the number of cases initiated last year remained the second-highest number filed over a 10-year span, according to a report by Lex Machina.
Expert Analysis
-
Key Provisions In Florida's New Insurer Accountability Act
Florida's recent bipartisan Insurer Accountability Act introduces a range of new obligations for insurance companies and regulatory bodies to strengthen consumer protection, and other states may follow suit should it prove successful at ensuring a reliable insurance market, say Jan Larson and Benjamin Malings at Jenner & Block.
-
Next Steps For Insurers After Ky. OKs Early 3rd-Party Claims
While insurers in Kentucky may face more statutory bad faith claims after a recent state Supreme Court decision clarified that third parties may bring these torts even before determination of coverage is finalized, insurers can adopt a variety of approaches to reduce their exposure, says Jason Reichlyn at Dykema Gossett.
-
Insurers, Prepare For Large Exposures From PFAS Claims
With thousands of lawsuits concerning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances pending across the country, several large settlements already reached, and both regulators and the plaintiffs bar increasingly focusing on PFAS, it is becoming clear that these "forever chemicals" present major exposures to insurers and their policyholders, say Scott Seaman and Jennifer Arnold at Hinshaw.
-
What To Know About Duty To Settle Insurance Claims In Texas
Laura Grabouski of Holden Litigation examines the parameters of Texas insurers' duty to settle liability claims within the limits of the primary policy, as knowledge of the requirements — and the potential exposure from insureds, judgment creditors or excess creditors — can pay dividends in the era of nuclear verdicts.
-
Ga. Mirror-Image Rule Makes Settlements Fraught For Insurers
The Georgia Court of Appeals' recent decision in Pierce v. Banks shows how strictly Georgia courts will enforce the rule that an insurer's response to a settlement demand must be a mirror image of the demand — and is a reminder that parties must exercise caution when accepting such a demand, says Seth Friedman at Lewis Brisbois.
-
Insurance Ruling Shows Notice Letters Need Close Review
A Texas appeals court's recent disapproval of an insured’s presuit notice letter to Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance — which refused to quantify an alleged injury — should prompt courts to probe deeper when considering whether such a letter gives the insurer the information needed to resolve the claim or make a settlement offer, say Jennifer Martin and Timothy Delabar at Wilson Elser.
-
11th Circ. Ruling May Impede Insurers' Defense Cost Recoup
The Eleventh Circuit's recent Continental Casualty v. Winder Laboratories ruling that insurers cannot obtain reimbursement of defense costs from their insureds where the policy itself does not require such reimbursement is likely to be cited as persuasive authority in Georgia and other states without clear precedent on the issue, say Christy Maple and Robert Whitney at Phelps Dunbar.
-
Groundbreaking Nev. Law May Alter Insurance Landscape
The Nevada Legislature recently passed a law prohibiting insurers from issuing liability policies with eroding limits provisions that has the potential to create massive shifts in the marketplace — and specifically in areas like professional liability, cyber, and directors and officers insurance, says Will Bennett at Saxe Doernberger.
-
Insurance Insights From 5th Circ. Blue Bell Coverage Ruling
The Fifth Circuit's recent ruling that denied Blue Bell insurance coverage for the defense costs incurred from a shareholder lawsuit underscores the importance of coordination of different coverages and policies across programs, and the potential perils of seeking recovery for losses under nontraditional policies, say Geoffrey Fehling and Casey Coffey at Hunton.
-
The Legal Issues Flying Around The Evolving Drone Market
As the number of drone registrations is expected to more than double over the next three years, the industry faces new risks and considerations related to privacy, Fourth Amendment, criminal, evidentiary, First Amendment, and insurance litigation, say attorneys at Covington.
-
What The ESG Divide Means For Insurers And Beyond
The debate around ESG is becoming increasingly polarized, with some states passing legislation that prohibits the use of ESG factors and others advancing affirmative legislation, highlighting the importance for insurers and other companies to understand this complex legal landscape, say Scott Seaman and Bessie Daschbach at Hinshaw.
-
Consider Self-Help To Trigger Additional-Insured Status
A New Jersey federal court recently affirmed that owners and contractors can use self-help by filing third-party claims for indemnification against subcontractors, triggering coverage from a subcontractor's insurance by asserting that an employee's injuries resulted from the subcontractor's fault or the employee's own negligence, say Allen Wolff and Ethan Middlebrooks at Anderson Kill.
-
Why 7th Circ.'s BIPA Insurance Analysis Is Significant
The Seventh Circuit's ruling in Citizens v. Wynndalco is the first appellate opinion on one of the three major exclusions raised by insurers faced with a duty to defend alleged violations of the Biometric Information Privacy Act and could foreshadow future BIPA opinions favoring policyholders, say John Vishneski and Adrienne Kitchen at Reed Smith.