In QBE Ins. Corp. v. Adjo Contracting Corp. (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep't Oct. 29, 2014), an intermediate appellate court in New York confronted cross-appeals involving 15 different insurers embroiled in multiple lawsuits, including consolidated class actions. The core issue of the case was whether the insurers for a variety of subcontractors were obligated to provide a defense to tenants' lawsuits against the developer and general contractor of a doomed residential ... Keep Reading »
Exclusions/Exceptions
If it Races like a Tortoise: Connecticut Deconstructs a Policyholder
From Zeno of Elea to the Washington Nationals, images of racing have ceaselessly troubled Western thought. But as ancient metaphysics has given way to philosophy of language, the questions we ask ourselves have changed. In Sonson v. United Services Auto. Ass'n No. 35890 (Conn. Ct. App. Sept. 16, 2014), an automobile policyholder had to show that a "racing" exclusion did not apply, so he argued that Achilles could never overtake the tortoise if he was not "competing ... Keep Reading »
With Sewers Backing Up, Messy Damage Claims are On the Rise
Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of - - - smelling foulness I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to. Five hundred yards. The length of five football fields. Just shy of half a mile. –The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Many homeowners and other property insurance policies contain an exclusion to address one of the by-products of the increased frequency of severe weather: it bars coverage for property damage caused by "water which backs up ... Keep Reading »
Drive, He Said: When “Yes” Means “Don’t Shoot!”
Bad things can happen to innocent people, and sometimes the people responsible for them are judgment-proof. When that happens—and when the perpetrator also has potential coverage under an automobile or homeowners policy—victims sometimes view the circumstances of their injury more generously; they describe them with words like "careless" and "negligent" in place of harsh, judgmental terms, such as "intentional" or "criminal." Something of this sort seems to have been ... 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 »
Fifth Circuit Holding Breathes Life Back Into the Contractual Liability Exclusion
Liability insurance policies typically exclude coverage for obligations arising out of the insured’s "assumption of liability in a contract or agreement." Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court took a narrow view of this exclusion: in the landmark decision in Ewing Construction Co. v. Amerisure Insurance Co., 420 S.W.3d 30 (Tex. 2014), the court held that a contractor’s agreement to perform construction work "in a good and workmanlike manner" did not assume any ... Keep Reading »
The Meth Business is Dangerous; (En)trust No One
For a landlord, it’s a bad day when your tenant gets busted for operating a meth lab, and the local authorities condemn your house because it’s contaminated with the byproducts of his business. It’s even worse when you learn there is no coverage for the cost of cleaning up the contamination. Neighborhood Investments, LLC, leased a house in Louisville, Kentucky, to a Mr. Kenneth McCormick. As neighborhood investments go, this was not a winner. Mr. McCormick was ... 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 »
On Remand, District Court Expands Subcontractor Exception to Rule Against Coverage for Faulty Workmanship
Recent decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Tenth and Second Circuits have partially overturned a longstanding rule against coverage for faulty workmanship under commercial general liability policies. The rule, known as the “fortuity doctrine,” was based on insuring clauses that provided coverage only for claims arising out of an “occurrence,” and which defined “occurrence” to mean “accident.” For many years, courts held that claims based on the insured’s ... Keep Reading »
In Faulty Workmanship Cases, Insuring Clause Dogs are Wagged by Exclusion Tails
In Greystone Const., Inc. v. National Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 661 F.3d 1272, 1289 (10th Cir. 2011), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit articulated an important rule for construing commercial general liability policies: [A] CGL policy ‘begin[s] with a broad grant of coverage, w[hich is then limited in scope by exclusions. Exceptions to exclusions narrow the scope of the exclusion and . . . add back coverage. But it is the initial broad grant of ... Keep Reading »