General Liability
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October 03, 2024
12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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October 03, 2024
9th. Circ. To Weigh If Geico Favored Noninsured In Auto Suit
The Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments Wednesday over whether Geico acted in bad faith when it prioritized a release of its policyholder's father-in-law during failed settlement negotiations with the family of a pedestrian fatally struck by the insured driver, focusing on whether a "permissive-use provision" extended coverage. Here, Law360 breaks down the case in advance.
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October 03, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
Employees in Colorado can seek coverage beyond workers' compensation after crashing at work, a suit over the demise of a tunnel-boring machine is finally over, the Alaska Supreme Court iced out businesses seeking COVID-19 loss coverage and Atari was allowed to pursue State Farm for using its game in a commercial. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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October 03, 2024
D&O Expert Talks Market Trends And Predictions
Directors and officers policyholders should keep a close eye on an evolving regulatory environment and risks related to artificial intelligence, but they can expect the market to remain stable over the next year due to increased capacity, according to CAC Specialty Senior Vice President Robert Regueiro. Here, he sits down with Law360 to talk about those issues.
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October 03, 2024
TikTok Ruling Expected To Spur Major Coverage Review
The Third Circuit knocked a hole in social media companies' liability protections by reviving a lawsuit challenging TikTok's algorithm, potentially multiplying litigation risks and costs and prompting a major reevaluation of those companies' insurance coverage options.
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October 02, 2024
Gordon Rees Atty Asks Judge To Rethink Malpractice Ruling
A Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP attorney urged a Washington state court to reconsider a recent ruling denying the dismissal of legal malpractice claims brought by the insurer for a climbing equipment manufacturer, saying the assignment and subrogation of professional liability claims is improper.
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October 01, 2024
Convicted CEO Narrows Fee Bid Against Conn. Utility Co-Op
A former Connecticut utility CEO has dropped some attorney fee claims against his onetime employer following a jury conviction for stealing public funds, telling a federal judge on Tuesday to focus on a bid for fees should prosecutors choose to litigate a second indictment.
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October 01, 2024
Calif. Judge Won't Let Insurers Slip Mold Coverage Suit
A California federal judge mostly refused to allow a group of insurers to escape a suit filed by the owner and operator of a 231-unit California apartment complex seeking coverage for mold under a $69 million builders risk policy.
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October 01, 2024
Military Contractor's Widow Can Continue Death Benefit Suit
A widow's pursuit of $670,000 in benefits following her husband's death in Afghanistan while training the country's police force can continue, an Illinois federal judge ruled, trimming claims against the man's employers and benefits administrators but leaving her breach of contract claim against an insurer intact.
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October 01, 2024
Battery Companies' Fire Cleanup Fight Trimmed In Ga.
A Georgia federal judge trimmed a battery reseller and its recycling counterpart's lawsuit against their insurer over claims that the carrier failed to fully cover them after a two-week-long fire ravaged their property, finding that the insurer didn't owe additional coverage for the companies' personal property losses.
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September 30, 2024
NC Builder's Insurer Must Cover Death Suit, Estate Says
The estate of a woman who died while working on a roof replacement project said it's entitled to coverage under a construction company's policy, telling a North Carolina state appeals court Monday a lower court wrongly held that the woman was an employee barred from coverage.
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September 30, 2024
Insurer Says BIPA Row Not Covered Due To Prior Settlement
The insurer for a Chicago-based seat manufacturer told an Illinois federal court it owes no coverage for an underlying lawsuit accusing the company of violating the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, noting it already reached a coverage settlement with the company in a prior BIPA class action involving similar claims.
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September 30, 2024
MetLife Can't Get Early Win In Pensioners' Mortality Table Suit
MetLife lost its bid for an early win Monday in a federal benefits lawsuit from pensioners alleging the company lowballed their annuity payouts by using outdated mortality data when making conversions, with a New York federal judge concluding that disputes over actuarial assumptions should proceed to trial.
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September 30, 2024
$143M Seattle Tunnel Insurance Suit Settles Midtrial
A Seattle construction contractor that claimed it was wrongly denied more than $143 million in coverage for damage to a massive tunneling machine has settled its case against insurers, the parties told a Washington state judge Monday on the second day of a jury trial.
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September 30, 2024
Marsh McLennan Paying $7.75B For McGriff Insurance
New York-based global professional services group Marsh McLennan said Monday it has agreed to buy insurance brokerage McGriff Insurance Services, an affiliate of TIH Insurance Holdings, for $7.75 billion in a deal that included guidance from Troutman Pepper, Wachtell Lipton and Simpson Thacher.
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September 27, 2024
Hurricane Helene Losses Could Exceed $5B: Market Analyst
The losses from Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that slammed into Florida's panhandle Thursday evening, could exceed $5 billion and challenge insurers dealing with high reinsurance costs, according to an early estimate from the insurer credit rating company AM Best.
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September 27, 2024
$36M Oil Cleanup Row Isn't A Case For Fed. Court, Judge Says
An Oklahoma federal court tossed a pipeline owner's lawsuit seeking coverage from its excess insurers for an oil spill on tribal land that it said cost over $36 million to clean up, finding the court lacked the subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case.
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September 27, 2024
Colo. Law Voids Cos.' Coverage Agreement, Judge Rules
An oil and gas production company isn't owed coverage by an electrical drilling company for an underlying lawsuit brought by an injured worker, a Colorado federal judge ruled, finding that defense, indemnification and insurance provisions within the companies' agreement are void under state law.
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September 27, 2024
Mich. Justices Take Up Another Auto Reform Coverage Case
The Michigan Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a crash coverage dispute concerning whether changes to the state no-fault act's medical care reimbursement rates apply to post-reform treatment, weighing in on a case where the injury occurred after the June 2019 statutory amendment but before the July 2021 effective date.
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September 26, 2024
Seattle Firm Seeks $143M In Tunnel Machine Insurance Trial
A Seattle construction contractor told a Washington state jury on Wednesday its insurers owe $143 million for repairs to a massive tunneling machine that sustained "catastrophic damage" when it struck a steel pipe underground in 2013, urging jurors to reject the defense that the claim fell under a "machinery breakdown" exclusion.
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September 26, 2024
Round Up: Insurance Highlights At Climate Week NYC
The value of insurer climate risk disclosures, strengthening infrastructure and communicating climate risks were among the top issues that insurance industry officials, elected officials, and regulators highlighted at this year's edition of Climate Week in New York City.
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September 26, 2024
Edible Arrangements Says Zurich Shirked Policy Duties In $4M Suit
Atlanta-headquartered Edible Arrangements has hit the American Zurich Insurance Co. with a breach of contract suit seeking at least $4.2 million, claiming the insurer refused to defend and indemnify it against counterclaims stemming from a trademark suit it filed against another company.
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September 26, 2024
Ga. Hotel's Win Belies Uncertainty In Trafficking Coverage
A Georgia federal judge's ruling that an insurer must defend a hotel in an underlying trafficking lawsuit marked a win for insureds in maintaining the breadth of their policies, but arguments of exclusions and public policy violations continue to divide the courts, experts say.
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September 26, 2024
Insurer Tells NC Justices Not To Revive COVID Coverage Row
An insurer urged North Carolina's top court not to revive a clothing company's COVID-19 coverage suit, saying there has been an "overwhelming" consensus among courts in the U.S. that commercial property insurance policies do not cover business losses caused by the pandemic.
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September 26, 2024
5th Circ. Silo Damage Reversal Sends Warning To Insurers
The Fifth Circuit sent general liability insurers a warning over attempts to flatly deny construction defect claims amid complex facts by reversing an insurer's early win in a dispute over what proportion of the damage to two faulty grain silos constituted covered property damage.
Expert Analysis
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Del. 3M Ruling Risks Upending Corporate Insurance Programs
A Delaware court's findings last week in the 3M earplug insurance litigation that a parent company's defense fee payments don't count toward a subsidiary's self-insured retention and that an insurer's duty to pay defense costs doesn't attach to multidistrict litigation merit closer scrutiny in light of the modern corporate form and the fundamental objectives of MDLs, say Julie Hammerman and Gary Thompson at Thompson HD.
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Justices' Ch. 11 Ruling Is A Big Moment For Debtors' Insurers
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum ruling upends decades of Chapter 11 bankruptcy jurisprudence that relegated a debtor’s insurer to the sidelines, giving insurers a new footing to try and avoid significant liability, say Stuart Gordon and Benjamin Wisher at Rivkin Radler.
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7th Circ Joins Trend Of No CGL Coverage For Structural Flaws
The Seventh Circuit, which recently held potential structural instability did not count as property damage under a construction company's commercial general liability policy, joins a growing consensus that faulty work does not implicate coverage without tangible and present damage to the project, say Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty, and Elan Kandel and James Talbert at Bailey Cavalieri.
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7th Circ. Exclusion Ruling Will Narrow BIPA Coverage
The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Thermoflex Waukegan v. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, holding that the access or disclosure exclusion applies to insurance claims brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, departs from the majority rule and opens the door to insurers more firmly denying coverage under general liability policies, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Revisiting Scalia's 'What's It To You?' After Kaiser Ruling
While the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser allows insurers to be considered "parties in interest" in Chapter 11 cases, they still need to show they would face an injury in fact, answering the late Justice Antonin Scalia's "what's it to you?" question, say Brent Weisenberg and Jeff Prol at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Calif. Long-Tail Ruling Continues Policyholder-Friendly Trend
The California Supreme Court's recent ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, rejecting horizontal policy exhaustion, was the latest in a string of its decisions involving insurance coverage for continuous or progressive injury claims that favor policyholders, say Billie Mandelbaum and David Goodwin at Covington.
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NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2
The second quarter of 2024 saw less enforcement activity in the realm of New York financial services, but brought substantial regulatory and legislative developments, including state regulators' guidance on cybersecurity compliance and customer service processes for virtual currency entities, say James Vivenzio and Andrew Lucas at Perkins Coie.
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NJ Justices Clarify First-Party Indemnification Availability
In Boyle v. Huff, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that indemnification can be available in first-party claims, resolving an open question and setting up contracting parties for careful negotiations around indemnity clauses, says Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey.
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Takeaways From Justices' Redemption Insurance Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Connelly v. U.S. examines how to determine the fair market value of shares in a closely held company for estate tax purposes, and clarifies how life insurance held by the company to enable redemption of a decedent’s shares affects that calculation, says Evelyn Haralampu at Burns & Levinson.
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Insurers Have A Ch. 11 Voice Following High Court Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum — which reaffirmed a broad definition of "party in interest" — will give insurers, particularly in mass tort Chapter 11 bankruptcies, more opportunity to protect their interests and identify problems with reorganization plans, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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8th Circ. Insurance Ruling Spotlights Related-Claims Defenses
The Eighth Circuit’s recent Dexon v. Travelers ruling — that the insurer must provide a defense despite the policy’s related-acts provision — provides guidance for how policyholders can overcome related-acts defenses, say Geoffrey Fehling and Jae Lynn Huckaba at Hunton.
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Managing Legal Risks After University Gaza Protests
Following the protests sparked by the war in Gaza, colleges and universities should expect a long investigative tail and take steps to mitigate risks associated with compliance issues under various legal frameworks and institutional policies, say Wiley's Diana Shaw and Colin Cloherty.
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An Insurance Coverage Checklist For PFAS Defendants
With PFAS liability exposures attracting increased media attention, now is a good time for companies that could be exposed to liability related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to review existing and past insurance policies, and consider taking proactive steps to maximize their likelihood of coverage, say attorneys at Nossaman.