General Liability

  • November 08, 2024

    Dance School's $30M Abuse Deal Not Covered, Insurer Says

    The insurer for a New Jersey ballet school told a federal court it didn't owe coverage for a $30 million consent judgment reached in a consolidated underlying action brought by former students of the school, citing abuse and molestation exclusions in commercial general liability and umbrella policies.

  • November 07, 2024

    Trump Election Complicates Growing Insurance Climate Crisis

    Donald Trump's election to a second term as president is a huge setback for global efforts to curb climate change, and his disregard for the environment will likely complicate efforts to better understand climate risks facing insurers and consumers, experts say. 

  • November 07, 2024

    State Farm Owes No Coverage For Exec In Fatal Crash Suit

    A repair company's president who was involved in a fatal accident while driving a truck he personally owned but also used on the job can't be covered under its commercial auto policies, an Alaska federal court ruled, noting it's undisputed he was on a personal errand at the time.

  • November 07, 2024

    Insurance Litigation Week In Review

    Insurers sought to limit coverage for Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. in underlying securities claims, a proposed class of Washington Airbnb users accused the company's insurers of including undisclosed fees in their travel insurance and two Hartford units said Meta isn't owed coverage for numerous public nuisance lawsuits. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.

  • November 07, 2024

    Insurance Industry Biodiversity Push Comes Down To Funds

    The insurance industry could lend crucial support in preventing biodiversity loss through novel risk-sharing instruments, but its effectiveness will depend on the ability to finance coverage costs, and understand the risks to biodiversity in a variety of ecosystems.

  • November 07, 2024

    Property Co. Sues Insurer Over Late Coverage Rights Letter

    A company providing management services to homeowners associations accused its insurer in North Carolina federal court of acting in bad faith after it said the insurer only sent it a reservation of rights letter a year into its defense of a fire damage lawsuit.

  • November 07, 2024

    6th Circ. To Mull CGL-Cyber Line In Home Depot Hack Fight

    The Sixth Circuit's consideration of whether an electronic data exclusion relieves commercial general liability insurers for Home Depot of $50 million in data breach coverage obligations could provide some clarity on when, or if, CGL and cyber coverage overlap.

  • November 06, 2024

    Insurer Must Fully Cover $1.17M Crash Award, Fla. Panel Says

    A Florida state appeals court upheld a directed verdict finding an auto insurer acted in bad faith while attempting to settle a woman's injury claims over a drunken driving crash, affirming Wednesday that the company must fully cover her $1.17 million compensatory damages award, less a prior $25,000 payment.

  • November 06, 2024

    Telecom Co. Seeks Toss Of Insurer's Marshall Fire Suit

    A Lumen Technologies subsidiary urged a Colorado federal court to toss a Liberty Mutual unit's suit seeking to avoid coverage for underlying actions over the 2021 Marshall Fire, saying the insurer lacks standing because it has not suffered any injury.

  • November 05, 2024

    An Early Look At Trump's Supreme Court Shortlist

    With former President Donald Trump projected to win the 2024 presidential election and the Republicans' success in securing the U.S. Senate majority, Trump may now get the chance to appoint two more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, cementing the court's conservative tilt for decades to come.

  • November 05, 2024

    GOP's Senate Win Hands Future Of The Judiciary To Trump

    Republicans were projected to take back the White House and Senate and possibly the House early Wednesday, putting the GOP in position to back Donald Trump's agenda and his slate of young, conservative judicial nominees. 

  • November 05, 2024

    Del., NC Insurance Commissioners Hold Their Seats

    Incumbent insurance commissioners successfully defended their positions on Election Day, with Mike Causey winning in North Carolina, Trinidad Navarro securing his position in Delaware and Jon Godfread running unopposed in North Dakota. Washington voters elected a new commissioner for the first time in 24 years, with state Sen. Patty Kuderer assuming the position.

  • November 05, 2024

    9th Circ. Says State Farm Needn't Cover Sex Assault Claims

    A State Farm unit doesn't owe coverage to a man accused of sexual assault, the Ninth Circuit held Tuesday, affirming that the man engaged in deliberate and intentional conduct and thus there was no occurrence, or accident, for the purpose of triggering coverage.

  • November 05, 2024

    Insurer Drops Ice Rink Suit Against Maintenance Co.

    An insurer and an ice rink maintenance company have stipulated to the dismissal of the insurer's suit alleging that the maintenance company negligently installed a heat exchanger for an Ann Arbor, Michigan, ice rink.  

  • November 05, 2024

    Management Co. Says Insurer Can't Duck HOA Fire Coverage

    A property management company has taken an Auto-Owners Insurance unit to North Carolina federal court for allegedly trying to pull back defense and indemnity coverage it had already been providing in an underlying lawsuit brought by a homeowners' association over a 2021 fire, arguing that it's too late for the insurer to back out.

  • November 05, 2024

    Meta Owed No Coverage For Social Media MDL, Hartford Says

    Two Hartford units told a Delaware state court they should have no duty to defend Meta Platforms Inc., parent of Facebook and Instagram, against numerous lawsuits accusing the social media giant of deliberately designing its platforms to be addictive to adolescents and concealing its harmful effects on them. 

  • November 04, 2024

    9th Circ. Revives Developer's Fire Loss Coverage Suit

    The Ninth Circuit revived a company's claim for lost business income after its laundromat development project was destroyed in a fire, saying Monday in an unpublished opinion that the developer's claim is not unduly speculative.

  • November 04, 2024

    Insurer Says Only Sublimit Available In Sex Misconduct Suits

    A commercial general liability insurer for a Nashville-based gym told a Tennessee federal court that only a $100,000 "each abuse" sublimit in an abuse endorsement is available for four civil lawsuits stemming from a personal trainer's sexual misconduct.

  • November 04, 2024

    Justices Remand Atty Privilege Case After Judge Admits Gaffe

    The Colorado Supreme Court has remanded a case over whether communications between an insurance company's outside lawyer and the experts it hired to study an alleged construction defect are privileged, after some justices said the appeal was "half-baked" because the trial judge had already admitted she was wrong.

  • November 01, 2024

    Taco Bell Franchisee Insurers Want Out Of BIPA Suit Coverage

    Two Nationwide units told an Illinois federal court they owe no coverage to two Taco Bell franchisees facing a proposed class action alleging that they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, invoking three separate exclusions in the franchisees' commercial general liability and umbrella policies.

  • October 31, 2024

    Insurance Risks Abound Due To Exceptional Storms, Pros Say

    The 2024 hurricane season is historically exceptional from a climatological and insurance industry perspective, but it should also be understood against the greater context of a high-loss landscape that demands a finer understanding of changing climate risks, academic risk experts said Thursday.

  • October 31, 2024

    Chubb Says No Coverage For Texas Chemical Explosion Suits

    Two Chubb units told a Texas federal court Thursday they owe no coverage to Team Industrial Services Inc. for two lawsuits seeking to hold it liable for injuries from an explosion at a chemical plant, arguing a pollution exclusion applies because a release of a chemical caused the explosion.

  • October 31, 2024

    Insurance Litigation Week In Review

    The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on the enforceability of arbitration clauses in insurance contracts, a Pennsylvania federal court denied a medical company's bid for toxic tort coverage and a New Jersey federal court blocked an insurer's attempt to dodge covering sexual abuse claims.

  • October 31, 2024

    Kirkland Adds Partner To Insurance Transactions Practice

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP has added another partner to the firm's insurance transactions and regulatory practice group, following two other partner hires to the group earlier this year.

  • October 31, 2024

    Meet The Insurance Commissioner Candidates For Wash., ND

    With Washington and North Dakota rounding out the states prepared to cast their vote for insurance commissioner, the former will see a new commissioner for the first time in 24 years and the latter features an incumbent running unopposed. Law360 spoke with the candidates about their takes on the status of their state's insurance market and their plans for holding the office.

Expert Analysis

  • NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In a relatively light few months for banking legal updates in New York, the state Department of Financial Services previewed its views on banking sector artificial intelligence use via insurer guidance, and an anti-money laundering enforcement action underscored the importance of international monitoring processes, say Eric McLaughlin and Dana Bayersdorfer at Davis Polk.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.

  • 3 Coverage Tips As 2nd Circ. 'Swipes Left' On Tinder Claim

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    The Second Circuit's recent opinion in Match Group v. Beazley Underwriting, overturning Tinder's victory on its insurer's motion to dismiss a coverage action, reinforces three best practices policyholders purchasing claims-made coverage should adhere to in order to avoid late-notice defenses, say Lynda Bennett and Alexander Corson at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • What To Know About Insurance Coverage For Antitrust Risks

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    With all the regulatory activity surrounding antitrust and unfair competition claims, as highlighted by last month's D.C. federal court decision that Google is a monopolist, businesses must not only ensure compliance, but also understand their potential insurance coverage when such claims arise, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.

  • Rise Of Transpo Contractors Brings Insurance Disputes

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    As more independent contractors are contracted and subcontracted in the delivery industry, companies must be prepared to defend claims from drivers who are injured on the job as they are often seeking to establish an employment relationship with one of the entities in the chain, says Nathan Milner at Goldberg Segalla.

  • Finding Coverage For Online Retail Privacy Class Actions

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    Following recent court rulings interpreting state invasion of privacy and electronic surveillance statutes triggering a surge in the filing of privacy class actions against online retailers, companies should examine their various insurance policies, including E&O and D&O, for defense coverage of these claims, says Alison Gaske at Gilbert LLP.

  • What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings

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    Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.

  • Notable Q2 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss the muted nature of the property and casualty insurance class action space in the second quarter of the year, with no large waves made in labor depreciation and total-loss vehicle class actions, but a new offensive theory emerging for insurance companies.

  • Insurance Lessons From 11th Circ. Ruling On Policy Grammar

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in ECB v. Chubb Insurance, holding that missing punctuation didn't change the clear meaning of a professional services policy, offers policyholder takeaways about the uncertainty that can arise when courts interpret insurance policy language based on obscure grammatical canons, say Hugh Lumpkin and Garrett Nemeroff at Reed Smith.

  • 6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror

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    Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.

  • Illinois BIPA Reform Offers Welcome Relief To Businesses

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    Illinois' recent amendment to its Biometric Information Privacy Act limits the number of violations and damages a plaintiff can claim — a crucial step in shielding businesses from unintended legal consequences, including litigation risk and compliance costs, say attorneys at Taft.

  • Ore. Insurance Litigation Is Testing The Bounds After Moody

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    Despite the Oregon Supreme Court’s attempt to limit application of its 2023 decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union, which for the first time awarded extracontractual damages stemming from alleged negligent claims handling, recent litigation shows Oregon insurance companies face greater exposure, says Sarah Pozzi at Cozen O’Connor.

  • What's In NYDFS Guidance On Use Of AI In Insurance

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    Matthew Gaul and Shlomo Potesky at Willkie summarize the New York Department of Financial Services' recently adopted circular letter on the use of artificial intelligence in insurance underwriting and pricing, and highlight the material changes made to it in response to comments on the draft circular letter.