In what appears to be the first substantive appellate ruling in COVID-19-related insurance coverage litigation, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Oral Surgeons, P.C. v. Cincinnati Insurance Co. ruled in favor of the insurer and affirmed the trial court’s order of dismissal under Iowa law. The plaintiff in Oral Surgeons, a dental practice, allegedly sustained financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related government orders that temporarily restricted ... 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 »
Ninth Circuit Finds Refusal to Accept a Demand, Without More, Is Not a “Claim” Under Policy
On April 9, 2021, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Co. need not provide coverage for Alorica Inc.’s loss from a 2018 phishing attack because the letter received from Alorica regarding the incident did not constitute a “claim” under Starr’s policy. The policy defined a “claim” as a “written demand for monetary or non-monetary relief.” Alorica contended that a letter from Express Scripts to Alorica, ... 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 »
Consistent With Nationwide Trend, Recent Decisions Applying Louisiana Law Find COVID-19 Does Not Cause Physical Loss or Damage
Consistent with the majority of decisions in courts across the country, a number of Louisiana state and federal courts have recently held that COVID-19 does not cause physical loss or damage to property as required for coverage under most first-party property policies. In a summary judgment decision issued from the bench in Nite, Nite LLC v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, a Louisiana state court considered whether the state government’s COVID-19 shutdown ... Keep Reading »
Florida Senate Passes Legislation to Reform Litigation for Property Insurance Claims
Toward the end of the 2021 Florida legislative session, the Florida Senate passed Senate Bill 76, a bill that focuses on reducing litigation related to property insurance claims and also places restrictions on companies soliciting insureds to file roof claims. At the heart of SB 76 is the implementation of a presuit requirement that any claimant (who is not an assignee of the policy) must provide written notice of intent to initiate litigation to the insurer at least ... Keep Reading »
No More Runway for Florida COVID-19 Insurance Coverage Lawsuit
Judge Raag Singhal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently dismissed with prejudice a COVID-19 business interruption insurance coverage lawsuit brought by the owners of Anthony's Runway 84 - a popular restaurant near the Fort Lauderdale airport. As this blog has reported previously, there has been a tidal wave of rulings in favor of insurers in COVID-19 business interruption insurance coverage lawsuits. With Judge Singhal's dismissal with ... 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 »
Delaware Courts Secure Limited Scope of “Securities Claims” in D&O Policies
The federal district court in Delaware recently ruled in Calamos Asset Management Inc. v. Travelers Casualty & Surety Company of America that stockholder suits alleging breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with a merger do not constitute a "securities claim" in the context of D&O policies. This decision is another in a string of recent cases that have refused to expand that definition. The Merger and Subsequent Shareholder Litigation In December 2016, ... Keep Reading »
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