Property
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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June 12, 2024
8th Circ. Judge Calls Car Sex 'Clearly Foreseeable' In HPV Suit
An Eighth Circuit judge said Wednesday that having sex in a vehicle is "clearly foreseeable," challenging Geico's contention that such activity does not constitute normal use of an automobile in a coverage suit over a woman's claim that she contracted HPV during sexual encounters in a policyholder's car.
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June 12, 2024
$18.8M Theft Coverage Suit Must Be Heard In State Court
A Texas federal judge ruled that a lawsuit brought against an insurer over $18.8 million in theft and vandalism at a Georgia shopping center belongs in state court, refusing to create diversity by removing a plaintiff.
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June 11, 2024
Precedent Favors Nationwide In Mich. Tax Fight, Judge Says
A Michigan Court of Appeals judge said Tuesday that the state's tax agency was asking the court to turn its back on recent precedent to hold that Nationwide entities couldn't file as a unitary business to share insurance tax credits across their group members.
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June 11, 2024
Restaurant Owner Seeks $414K For Deductible Overpayment
The owner of two Florida restaurants is seeking reimbursement of over $400,000, telling a federal district court Tuesday that it overpaid a claim deductible for damage stemming from Hurricane Ian after its insurer misapplied the appropriate endorsement.
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June 11, 2024
Brach Eichler Adds Insurance Pro From Garces Grabler In NJ
Brach Eichler has continued a recent boom in its litigation team with the hire of a no-fault insurance expert from personal injury giant Garces Grabler & LeBrocq PC in New Jersey who also brings expertise as a former in-house attorney for GEICO.
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June 10, 2024
Judge Sides With Tenants In Legionnaires' Coverage Dispute
A Kentucky federal court declined to exercise jurisdiction in an insurer's attempt to secure a ruling that coverage isn't available to its landlord-insureds in a $4.5 million underlying state court action in which a tenant alleged that the landlords' negligence caused her to contract Legionnaires' disease.
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June 10, 2024
High Court On Ch. 11, New Bank Rules, Alex Jones Ch. 7 Shift
The U.S. Supreme Court said an insurance company has "party in interest" standing to intervene in a Chapter 11 case, the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog "modernized" its agreement for banks holding debtor funds, and recent motions could pivot Alex Jones and his media company's Chapter 11s to Chapter 7 liquidations.
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June 10, 2024
AM Best Boosts Reinsurance Market Outlook To 'Positive'
AM Best revised its outlook on the global reinsurance market Monday from "stable" to "positive," pointing to "robust" profit margins and a well-capitalized market amid a backdrop of higher interest rates, which AM Best said are not expected to decrease anytime soon.
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June 10, 2024
Insurer Off Hook For HOA's $7.6M Roof Damage Replacement
An insurer didn't act in bad faith or partake in deceptive trade practices when investigating and issuing payment for storm damage that a homeowners association suffered, a federal judge ruled, finding the insurer never accepted the HOA's nearly $8 million estimate as valid and did not agree to pay that amount.
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June 10, 2024
Pa. Bridge Collapse Victim Can Only Get $5K, Court Told
Pittsburgh Regional Transit wants to trim claims brought by a passenger aboard a bus that was on the Fern Hollow Bridge when it collapsed in 2022, telling a Pennsylvania court that as a self-insured state agency, the most it would owe her is $5,000 for medical expenses.
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June 07, 2024
Texas Top Court Denies Roofer's Challenge To Adjuster Laws
The Supreme Court of Texas tossed on Friday a roofing company's challenge to the state's public adjuster licensing laws, saying that requiring a license or preventing certain conduct didn't violate the roofer's free speech rights.
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June 07, 2024
Zurich, Loan Co. Settle $15M Ex-3M Campus Repairs Suit
The lender and current title owner for a now-foreclosed Austin property that was once the campus of 3M reached a settlement in principle with a Zurich unit over coverage for their $15.5 million winter storm damage claim, the parties told a Texas federal court.
Expert Analysis
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PFAS Coverage Litigation Strategy Lessons For Policyholders
While policyholders' efforts to recover insurance proceeds for PFAS-related costs are in the early stages, it appears from litigation so far that substantial coverage should be available for PFAS-related liabilities, including both defense costs and indemnity payments in connection with those liabilities, say Benedict Lenhart and Alexis Dyschkant at Covington.
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Climate Reporting Regs Mean New Risks To Insure
As regulators in the U.S., U.K. and beyond implement new climate-related investment and disclosure requirements for corporations, decision makers should investigate whether their insurance policies offer the right coverage to respond to the legal and regulatory risks of this increased scrutiny, says David Cummings at Reed Smith.
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Unpacking NY's Revamped Wrongful Death Bill
Legislation to amend New York’s wrongful death law, introduced May 2, proposes more limited reforms than an earlier version the governor vetoed in January, but will likely still face strong opposition due to the severe financial impacts it would have on insurers’ set premiums and reserves, say Eric Andrew and David Adams at Hurwitz Fine.
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NY Ruling Highlights Need For Specific Insurance Disclaimers
New York coverage counsel responsible for writing disclaimer letters should heed a recent appellate decision, Bahnuk v. Countryway Insurance, in which the letter sent to the plaintiff was deemed to be insufficiently specific, leaving the insurance company on the hook for coverage, says Dan Kohane at Hurwitz Fine.
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5 Tips For Filing Gov't Notices After Insurance Producer M&A
As insurance producer acquisition activity picks up in 2023, requiring a daunting process of notifying information changes to each Department of Insurance where the entity is licensed, certain best practices will help buyers alleviate frustration and avoid administrative actions and fines, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.
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Policyholder Lessons From Sandy No-Coverage Decision
A New York federal court recently decided that in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Madelaine Chocolate knew Great Northern Insurance’s all-risk policy offered no coverage for storm surge — an important reminder that policyholders should review policy language for ambiguities or anti-concurrent causation clauses, say Dennis Artese and Joshua Zelen at Anderson Kill.
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Insureds' Notice Pleading May Be Insufficient In Federal Court
A recent New Jersey federal court ruling in Bauman v. Hanover Insurance held that bare-bones notice pleading was insufficient and dismissed the policyholder's coverage complaint, a reminder that courts may require more than an expression of general disagreement with an insurance company's denial letter to proceed with the case, says Eugene Killian at The Killian Firm.
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5th Circ. Offers Expert Opinion Guidance For Insurance Cases
A recent Fifth Circuit decision in Majestic Oil v. Lloyd's of London provides insight into how Texas' concurrent causation doctrine could affect insurance cases where the cause of damage is at issue, and raises considerations for litigants faced with new or revised expert reports after the deadline has passed, say Brian Scarbrough and Cianan Lesley at Jenner & Block.
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A Look At Florida's Aggressively Pro-Insurer Tort Reform
Florida's new tort reform law is an unwarranted gift to insurance companies that seeks to strip policyholders of key rights while doing little to curb excessive litigation, say Garrett Nemeroff and Hugh Lumpkin at Reed Smith.
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Navigating High Court's Options In Insurer Choice Of Law
Depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court approaches the question of when insurers may invoke choice-of-law clauses in maritime contracts to dodge state-specific liability, the Great Lakes v. Raiders Retreat Realty decision may mean significant changes not only for admiralty law disputes, but for the insurance industry more broadly, say Lara Cassidy and Adriana Perez at Hunton.
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How Cannabis Cos. Can Comply With NJ Industrial Site Law
As New Jersey’s recreational cannabis market flourishes, manufacturers that may be subject to a state environmental law must take extra precautions to mitigate potential liabilities and costs, including for historical contamination, says Matthew Karmel at Offit Kurman.
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As EVs Surge, Regs For Charger Warranties Remain Murky
Even as electric vehicles move rapidly into the mainstream, extended warranties for EV chargers do not always fit clearly into existing regulatory categories — but how such contracts are classified can have serious implications for the companies that issue and sell them, say attorneys at Locke Lord.
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Tips For Plaintiffs Attorneys Ahead Of Expanded Fire Season
With the expansion of fire season — both in length of time and geography — plaintiffs lawyers can expect fire-related litigation to increase this coming year and need to prepare themselves and their clients for claims that are complex, time-consuming and costly, says Gerald Singleton at Singleton Schreiber.