The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently ruled in United Specialty Insurance Co. v. Bani Auto Group Inc. that United Specialty Insurance Co. did not have a duty to indemnify its insureds in connection with litigation brought by the widow of a man killed while driving a car rented to him by the insureds, based on certain exclusions contained in an auto dealer policy issued by United, and awarded reimbursement of settlement funds advanced by ... Keep Reading »
Declaratory Judgment
Illinois Supreme Court Finds That Alleged Sharing of Fingerprint Data Violates the Right of Privacy, a “Personal Injury” Triggering Duty to Defend
The Illinois Supreme Court recently affirmed that West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. has a duty to defend an insured under a business insurance policy against allegations that they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that an exclusion that bars coverage for certain statutory actions did not apply. The court ruled that a tanning salon’s sharing of its clients’ biometric identifiers and biometric information (fingerprints) with a third-party ... Keep Reading »
PSA: Second Circuit Issues Reminder of the Consequences for Lack of Specificity in Disclaimers of Coverage for Personal Injury Claims Under New York Law
We have previously discussed the requirements imposed on insurers by New York law to inform insureds seeking coverage for death or bodily injury to describe any disclaimer of coverage “with a high degree of specificity of the ground or grounds on which the disclaimer is predicated.” In Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. v. Yeshivat Beth Hillel of Krasna Inc., the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently illustrated the consequences of failing to disclaim with such ... Keep Reading »
Texas Federal Court Finds Law Firm’s Alleged 40,000 Unauthorized Claims Related to Deepwater Horizon Disaster Were Not “Professional Services” Triggering Duty to Defend
The Southern District of Texas held that New York Marine and General Insurance Co. had no duty to defend its insured under a legal professional malpractice insurance policy for claims stemming from the firm's efforts to develop business in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. In the underlying litigation (the Nguyen litigation), a group of 439 Vietnamese Americans brought claims against the law firm, alleging that the firm targeted Vietnamese American fishermen ... Keep Reading »
Colorado Federal Court Finds “Kona” Class Actions Did Not Trigger “Personal and Advertising Injury” Insuring Agreement
A Colorado federal court relieved the Travelers Indemnity Company of America and Travelers Property Casualty Company of America of any obligation to defend or indemnify two putative class actions, finding neither action implicated the insuring agreement for "personal and advertising injury" contained in several Travelers commercial liability policies. The Underlying Actions Two underlying class actions were filed in Washington federal court against various coffee ... Keep Reading »
Ninth Circuit Flags NFL Stadium Design and Construction as Intentional Conduct Resulting in Out of Bounds Claim for Occurrence Coverage
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently found that insurers did not have to defend a construction company from the San Francisco 49ers' claim that the company negligently failed to construct the NFL team's stadium to be accessible to all people with physical disabilities. In Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. Turner/Devcon, the federal appellate court ruled that because the construction of the stadium was an intentional act, it did not constitute bodily injury or ... Keep Reading »
Gluing Feathers to a Phone Does Not Make a Turkey: Seventh Circuit Finds Mere “Negligence” Label and “Stitched Together” Factual Allegations Do Not Trigger Duty to Defend Aggressive Robocall Lawsuit Under Illinois Law
In 2015, Ocwen Financial Corp. was sued for its attempts to collect on a mortgage loan that had been discharged in bankruptcy. It tendered the defense to Zurich American Insurance Co., but Zurich asserted that two exclusions precluded coverage and sought a declaration from a federal court that it had no duty to defend the underlying complaint. The district court agreed, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed on appeal. The underlying complaint alleged that Ocwen violated ... Keep Reading »
Delaware Supreme Court Affirms Insurability of Fraud and Larger Settlement Allocation Rule
On March 3, 2021, the Supreme Court of Delaware issued a significant decision in the D&O coverage space, RSUI Indemnity Co. v. Murdock, analyzing whether fraud claims against insureds were covered under an excess D&O policy issued by RSUI Indemnity Co. to Dole Food Company Inc. The coverage dispute centered on stockholder litigation arising after David Murdock, the CEO and a director of Dole, took Dole private through a merger transaction resulting in Murdock ... Keep Reading »
New York Court Finds Securities Settlements Not Covered by D&O Policies Due to Insured Capacity and Uninsurable Loss Issues
A New York trial court recently granted summary judgment to a group of excess D&O insurers seeking a declaration that their policies do not cover settlements and consent judgments the defendants paid in connection with underlying securities actions. The decision emphasizes the insured capacity limitation in the D&O policy definition of a “wrongful act” and also reinforces that amounts paid as disgorgement are uninsurable as a matter of New York ... Keep Reading »
New York First Department Clarifies Effect of New York Insurance Law Section 3420 on Claims-Made-and-Reported Policies
In Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's London v. Advance Transit Co., a New York appellate court provided valuable clarity into how New York Insurance Law section 3420 applies to claims-made-and-reported insurance policies. Underwriters issued a claims-made-and-reported liability policy to Advance Transit Co., effective October 30, 2016, to October 30, 2017. The policy provided that if it were renewed, Advance would have an additional 60 days after the expiration of the ... Keep Reading »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 10
- Next Page »