It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. - Herman Melville October 29 marked the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy's assault on New York and New Jersey. Although the insurance litigation arising from this storm is just beginning, we have already seen a number of decisions out of New York that limited coverage, based on applicable flood sublimits. Last month, in Cammeby's Management ... Keep Reading »
You’re Not on the List: Failure to Name Names Knocks Lloyd’s Out of Federal Court
It is impossible today to imagine a world without insurance. Individuals can't buy houses or cars without insuring them against loss. Businesses cannot operate without any number of coverages—against damage to their property and equipment, against interruptions to their operations and against liability to employees, customers and the world at large. But ‘twas not ever thus. Recently, in a dispute over whether a group of Lloyd's underwriters could establish diversity ... Keep Reading »
Property Insurance Law 101 – A Primer from Texas
On the Fourth of July in 2011, a fire damaged a nightclub in Beaumont, Texas. The fire was not unusual, but the lawsuits it generated—O’Quinn v. General Star Indemnity Company, No. 1:13-CV-471 (E.D. Tex. Aug. 5, 2014), and Debes v. General Star Indemnity Company, No. 09-12-00527 (Tex. Ct. App. July 10, 2014)—review many of the ABCs of property insurance law in the Lone Star State. Everybody Goes to Alibi’s Alibi’s, a nightclub and restaurant, was open nightly from ... Keep Reading »
If Rainwater Lands Where it Doesn’t Belong, It’s Still “Surface Water” in the Eleventh Circuit
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a decision of the Southern District of Georgia, finding an insured’s claim for water damage fell within an exclusion for loss or damage caused by "surface water." In Williams v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, Case No. 14-11100 (11th Cir. July 17, 2014), the dispute arose after the insured’s home was damaged by "thigh deep" water runoff from a rainstorm. The water should have flowed away from the plaintiff’s home, ... Keep Reading »
A Flood by Any Other Name is Still a Flood – or Why Losses Caused by Flood Are Subject to Flood Sublimits
Lawyers are students of language, and they have a reputation for building arguments out of long-ago lessons of grammar and language arts. That reputation is not undeserved. Something as small as the placement of a comma can have a significant impact on coverage. But, at the end of the day, insurance contracts are intended to be enforced on the basis of their plain language. Two recent decisions from New York courts uphold this proposition in the context of applying ... Keep Reading »
Suit Limitations Provisions are Enforceable. Except When They’re Not.
When might a court find a reasonable and enforceable suit limitation provision neither reasonable nor enforceable? According to New York’s highest court, it’s when the provision would bar a claim to enforce the replacement coverage under a property policy, and where completion of the repairs that constitute the replacement is a condition precedent to the suit. In Executive Plaza, LLC v. Peerless Ins. Co., 5 N.E.3d 989, 990 (N.Y. 2014), the Court of Appeals of New York, ... Keep Reading »
Is There a Duty to Defend Pollution Claims? It’s the Complaint, Stupid
This Spring, cases from Florida and Wisconsin reaffirmed the general proposition that a liability insurer’s duty to defend must be determined from the specific claims in the underlying complaint against the insured, and not from facts available from other sources. Both cases dealt with contamination or pollution conditions, and, in both instances, the courts held it was the nature of the underlying claim, rather than the actual presence of a pollutant, that established ... Keep Reading »