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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • April 16, 2025

    Insureds Seek Coverage For 11 Suits Alleging Human Trafficking At Red Roof Hotels

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Insured hotel companies sued their general liability insurer in an Ohio federal court for breach of contract and bad faith, alleging that the insurer arbitrarily and capriciously denied coverage for 11 underlying lawsuits alleging that human trafficking occurred at various Red Roof hotels.

  • April 15, 2025

    NFL Plan To 5th Circuit: Let Fee Award Appeal Proceed In Disability Benefits Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Telling the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the issues raised are not “grounds for dismissal” and that it “could not have forfeited an appeal of the new fee award and opinion before they existed, when the case was in the opposite posture,” the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan on April 14 asked to be allowed to proceed with its appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player.

  • April 15, 2025

    Engineer To 4th Circuit: Affirm Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Contending in part that de novo review was correctly applied because of an “inexcusable failure to issue a timely decision,” a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claimant urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judgment that she is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.

  • March 20, 2025

    Insurer To 4th Circuit: Overturn Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Arguing that the lower court improperly applied de novo review and wrongly concluded that the claimant showed that she is disabled from working as an engineer because of long COVID symptoms, an insurer urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judgment that the claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

  • April 15, 2025

    Bad Faith Suit: CFPA Systematically Failed To Investigate, Pay Wildfire Claims

    LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs sued California Fair Plan Association (CFPA) and its “largest” members for breach of contract and bad faith in a California court, seeking compensation for their losses incurred by the January Los Angeles wildfires and to hold CFPA “accountable for its decade-long, systematic failure to properly investigate and pay wildfire claims.”

  • April 15, 2025

    Skechers Seeks Coverage For Injury Claims Caused By Shoes’ Lack Of Slip-Resistance

    LOS ANGELES — Skechers USA Inc. sued its commercial liability insurer in a California court for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair competition, alleging that the insurer has a duty to defend it against an underlying action contending that class members were harmed by actual physical accidents caused by the insured’s shoes’ lack of slip-resistance or by the fact that the shoes were unusable.

  • April 14, 2025

    Insured Dismisses 1 Insurer In Coverage Dispute Over Earplug Product Liability Claims

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Plaintiffs and one of their liability insurers filed in a Delaware court a stipulation and proposed order of voluntary dismissal with prejudice of all claims between them in a coverage lawsuit arising from an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars in defense costs.

  • April 14, 2025

    Dismissal Bid Fought In Dispute Over Disability Policy ‘Age 65’ Language

    PHOENIX — Arguing in part that the defendants’ “desired interpretation runs counter to the well-pleaded facts, the parties’ expectations, any reasonable consumer’s expectations, and decisional law,” a plaintiff on April 11 urged an Arizona federal court to deny dismissal of his putative class complaint over whether certain individual long-term disability (LTD) benefits must be paid through eligible insureds’ 65th birthdays.

  • April 14, 2025

    Potbelly Sandwich Shop Owner Sues Employment Practices Liability Insurer

    SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state sued its employment practices liability insurer in a Washington court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington.

  • April 09, 2025

    Dismissal Or Stay Sought In Row Involving Legionnaires’ Under Reinsurance Contract

    DETROIT — Citing an arbitration provision that is part of a reinsurance agreement, defendants in a suit over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease moved in Michigan federal court for dismissal or, alternatively, a stay pending arbitration.

  • April 08, 2025

    Disability Insurer Urges 11th Circuit To Affirm Any-Occupation Ruling

    ATLANTA — Noting the role that social media posts played and arguing that the appellant’s evidence was not overlooked and the opinions of her doctors were not ignored, a disability insurer urges the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold its termination of benefits as “based on substantial evidence, including multiple medical reviews, an uncontested vocational assessment identifying alternative occupations, and inconsistencies in [her] self-reported physical tolerances.”

  • April 08, 2025

    Insurers: ‘Had SCE Acted Responsibly, The Eaton Fire Could Have Been Prevented’

    LOS ANGELES — Insurers have filed a subrogation lawsuit alleging negligence and inverse condemnation against Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) in a California court, alleging that the Eaton fire could have been prevented had the defendant acted responsibly.

  • April 07, 2025

    Silica, Pollution Exclusions Bar Coverage For Dust Exposure Suits, Insurer Says

    LOS ANGELES — No coverage is owed for underlying bodily injury suits stemming from exposure to silica dust released from an insured’s countertops and stone products because the suits are barred by silica exclusions and total pollution exclusions included in the insured’s commercial general liability insurance policies, an insurer says in a complaint filed in California federal court.

  • April 03, 2025

    Amici Support Auto Insurers In U.S. High Court Dispute Over Class Decertification

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, as well as the Washington Legal Foundation, filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of automobile insurers, challenging a majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ conclusion that a lower court abused its discretion when it decertified a negotiation class because the insureds established that “injury could be calculated on a class-wide basis.”

  • April 02, 2025

    Parties Seeks Dismissal Of 1 Insurer In Coverage Dispute Over Medicaid Fraud Claims

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An insured and one of its insurers filed a stipulation asking a Delaware court to dismiss with prejudice all claims against the insurer in a professional liability coverage dispute arising from a Medicaid fraud investigation.

  • April 01, 2025

    Insurer, Reinsurer Seek To Oppose Reconsideration Of Cleanup Case Production Ruling

    PADUCAH, Ky. — An insurer and reinsurer seek leave from a Kentucky federal magistrate judge to file an opposition to a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents from the insurers in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs; they argue in their reply in support of their motion for leave that the motion for reconsideration violates at least two prior orders and improperly raises new arguments.

  • March 27, 2025

    Policy Owners Ask Connecticut Court To Affirm Setoff Rights In Rehabilitation Row

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Asset managers holding matured insurance policies filed a memorandum requesting that a Connecticut state court affirm that policy owners may apply unpaid death benefit claims as setoffs against ongoing premium obligations during a life insurer’s rehabilitation, arguing that such rights are mandated under state and common law; in a response filed two weeks later, the rehabilitator argues that that stance is “meritless.”

  • March 26, 2025

    Ex-NFL Player To 5th Circuit: Dismiss Fee Award Appeal In Disability Benefits Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Arguing in part that “[i]t would be patently unfair to reverse [his] benefits award while citing his failures to properly appeal and then excuse the Plan’s own failures to properly appeal the Fee Award,” a former National Football League player filed a motion asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the plan’s appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs.

  • March 25, 2025

    Fungi Exclusion Bars Coverage For Underlying Failure-To-Disclose Suit, Insurer Says

    ST. LOUIS — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying suit filed by the buyer of the insured’s home, who alleges that the insured failed to disclose the presence of mold in the home prior to the sale, because the insured’s homeowners policy excludes coverage for fungi and bacteria and because the policy was terminated prior to the filing of the underlying suit, a homeowners insurer says in a complaint filed in Missouri federal court.

  • March 19, 2025

    Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide Injury Suits

    DETROIT — No coverage is owed for underlying suits seeking damages for bodily injuries incurred as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning stemming from a malfunctioning pool heater at an insured’s hotel because the excess policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the underlying suits, an excess insurer says in a complaint filed in Michigan federal court.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Opposes Catholic Diocese’s Motion To File Amicus Brief In Contamination Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer on March 17 filed an opposition to a California Catholic diocese’s motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief in an insured’s appeal in a groundwater contamination coverage suit, telling the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the diocese should not be granted leave to file an amicus brief because the diocese’s arguments are not relevant to the contamination coverage dispute at issue.

  • March 18, 2025

    Oral Argument Sought In Challenge To Rehab Plan For Workers’ Comp Insurer

    SAN FRANCISCO — Both parties have requested oral argument in the First District California Court of Appeal in a workers’ compensation insurance carrier’s challenge to a nonconsensual rehabilitation plan that was approved as part of conservation proceedings brought by California’s insurance regulator and includes resolution of dozens of reinsurance participation agreement (RPA) lawsuits.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Seeks Take-Nothing Judgment After Jury Awards Insured $39.9M In Storm Suit

    TYLER, Texas — A commercial property insurer moved for full judgment as a matter of law and alternatively a new trial after a jury in a Texas federal court unanimously awarded its insured $4,838,747 in damages for its breach of contract and $35 million in exemplary damages for its breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing in a coverage dispute arising from property damage that was caused by an April 12, 2020, wind and hailstorm.

  • March 17, 2025

    6th Circuit Asked To Rehear No Coverage Ruling In Professional Liability Dispute

    CINCINNATI — An appellant filed a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc asking the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its finding that her declaratory judgment and bad faith claims fail because she did not provide a professional liability insurer with “all reasonably obtainable information” about her potential negligence claim against a dentist insured, arguing that the panel opinion misapplied insurance law, failed to hold the insurer accountable “for its shifting justifications” and created “an insurmountable burden for third parties attempting to report claims.”

  • March 17, 2025

    Dismissal Bids Fought In Row Over Vesttoo-Linked Letters Of Credit

    NEW YORK — In four motions that have drawn opposition, China Construction Bank Corp. (CCBC) and related defendants seek dismissal of claims that stem from the alleged fraud underlying the collapse of nonparty Vesttoo Ltd., arguing primarily that the New York federal court lacks jurisdiction and the claims are not sufficiently stated.