As every lawyer knows, Aristotle distinguished four types of explanation, or “cause,” for natural phenomena. The “final cause” is “that for the sake of which” a thing is what it is. In nature, the final cause can be the end of a series of developmental changes that typical members of a species undergo: the chicken is the final cause of the egg, the oak the final cause of the acorn. This blog recently discussed a case in which the Supreme Court of South Dakota invoked ... Keep Reading »
Construction/Builder's Risk
A Porous Border: Insurers Finding it Hard to Exclude Coverage for Additional Insureds
Landlords and tenants, contractors and sub-contractors, even fathers and sons often establish relationships that make one party potentially liable for the acts of the other. One way to manage the risk these relationships create is for one party to add the other to its liability insurance policy as an additional insured. On the other side, insurers try to limit their exposure to additional insureds by defining coverage in a way that applies only to risks the additional ... Keep Reading »
Courts Leaning Anti-Anti-Assignment
In October, in a case of first impression, the Kentucky Supreme court decided that Kentucky will follow the “majority rule,” under which anti-assignment clauses in insurance policies may not be enforced, if the assignment is made after the underlying loss has occurred. In December, the Supreme Court of California agreed to decide whether to extend that rule to “assignments” that occur by virtue of the merger of an insured into another business. In re Wehr ... Keep Reading »