When (if ever) are an insurer’s attorney’s fees and billing information discoverable in a coverage dispute? Though the question is straightforward, the answer can vary from case to case and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The Texas Supreme Court recently weighed in on the issue and found that an insurer’s attorney-billing information is not discoverable merely because the insurer challenges the insured’s request for attorney’s fees in coverage litigation. See In re Nat'l ... Keep Reading »
Property
WV Court Rules Earth Movement Exclusion Unambiguously Precludes Coverage Regardless of Whether Landslide Was a Man-Made or Naturally-Occurring Event
In Erie Insurance Property and Casualty Company v. Chaber, No. 16-0490 (W. Va. June 1, 2017), the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reversed a lower court’s decision, holding that damage caused by a landslide was excluded, regardless of whether the landslide resulted from excavations or naturally occurred, where the policy excluded loss whether such loss is “caused by an act of nature or is otherwise caused.” The court went on to follow the law of other ... Keep Reading »
Texas Supreme Court Clarifies When Insured May Recover Policy Benefits
In an effort to clarify over 20 years of conflicting precedent, the Texas Supreme Court announced five rules that, according to the court, explain the relationship between claims for breach of insurance policy and extra-contractual claims for bad faith and violations of the Texas Insurance Code. USAA Texas Lloyds Co. v. Menchaca, No. 14-0721, slip op. at 6 (Tex. April 7, 2017). Although an insurance policy is an agreement between the parties that is generally governed by ... Keep Reading »
New York Court Upholds Suit Limitation Period, Ruling Appraisal is Not a Condition Precedent to Filing Suit
Courts will generally uphold reasonable suit limitation periods in property insurance policies, if the insurer does not affirmatively waive or extend them. In MZM Real Estate Corp. v. Tower Ins. Co. of New York, No. 452741/2015 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. April 11, 2017), a New York court followed the general rule. In enforcing a suit limitation period, the court was unpersuaded by the insured’s argument that once appraisal is demanded it becomes a condition precedent to filing ... Keep Reading »
Florida Supreme Court Decides that Concurrent Causes Equal Coverage
It’s said that “defeat is an orphan,” but insurable losses often have multiple, concurrent causes. In some cases, one or more of those causes might be outside the scope of coverage, either by omission or exclusion. In Sebo v. American Home Assurance Company, No. SC14-897 (Fla. Dec. 1, 2016), the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that if damage results from “concurrent causes” and, as between the concurrent causes, an “efficient proximate cause” cannot be determined, it is ... Keep Reading »
Postdiluvian Perils: Second Circuit Weighs Coverage For Losses Suffered After The Waters Recede
“[N]ow I only hear/ Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,/ Retreating, to the breath/ Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear/ And naked shingles of the world.” — Matthew Arnold As this blog has reported, exclusions and limits for flood coverage have generally held up against the tide of claims arising from Superstorm Sandy. Now that the water is gone, however, new losses have been discovered, and new challenges arise. Last month, in National Railroad ... Keep Reading »
A Plague A’ Both Your Clauses: Insurance Probably Won’t Cover Businesses Stung By Zika
During the past several months, Zika virus has rapidly spread across Latin America and into the United States. While Congressional action has stalled, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a number of travel warnings, including one stating that “[p]regnant women should not travel” to the popular Wynwood neighborhood of Miami. This warning will almost certainly harm the many restaurants, art galleries and retail shops that cater to Wynwood’s ... Keep Reading »
Washington Court Finds Coverage For “Collapse” Is Not Set In Stone
As this blog has documented, the language of insurance policies evolves; it changes to address new risks, and it also responds to new interpretations of old policy provisions. Even if a policyholder maintains a long-standing relationship with a single carrier, the availability of coverage might turn on whether the loss occurred in a particular policy term. Property coverage for “collapse” provides an example of this development. After a number of courts found that the ... Keep Reading »
Alabama Puts The Mystery Back Into All-Risk Coverage
“There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea …” -- Moby-Dick Insuring property against loss creates an unavoidable moral hazard: policyholders often have an incentive to cause or allow their property to disappear. Early efforts to limit insurers’ exposure to that risk—such as requiring the insured to prove the cause of a loss by “direct and affirmative evidence”—proved unsustainable. Eventually, the problem gave rise to express exclusions for losses ... Keep Reading »
NY Appellate Court Rules “Blanket Ordinance or Law Coverage” not as Blanket as Insured Hoped
In 1947, some Bedouin shepherd boys were tending their sheep and goats near the ancient settlement of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. One of the boys threw a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and heard something break. Curious, they entered what was a small cave. Inside, they discovered a large clay vessel that had been broken by the thrown rock. It contained several scrolls. This led to the discovery of more clay jars and more scrolls, what would later be come ... Keep Reading »
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