In J&S Welding, Inc. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, the U.S. Court of Appeals reviewed a summary judgment ruling in favor of co-defendant West American Insurance Company (“West American”), issued by the U.S. District...more
In Life Skills, Inc. v. Harleysville Insurance Company, 2024 WL 3792261 (D. Mass. 2024), the District Court of Massachusetts found that “collapse” provisions within a commercial property policy were ambiguous where a floor...more
In MAve Hotel Investors LLC d/b/a The MAve Hotel, et al. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, et al., 2024 WL 2830909, (S.D.N.Y. 2024), to preserve diversity jurisdiction, the United States District Court for the...more
6/13/2024
/ Citizenship ,
Commercial Property Owners ,
Diversity ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Policy Terms ,
Property Damage ,
Property Insurance ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Underwriting
The New York Supreme Court recently weighed in on what constitutes “reasonable care” to maintain heat in the context of a first-party insurance policy exclusion requiring such reasonable care. In Michael Zimmerman v....more
In Mankoff v. Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (2024 WL 322297 (Tex. App.—Dallas Jan. 29, 2024)), the Court determined that the term “windstorm” was ambiguous as utilized in the subject insurance policy....more
A recent New Jersey Appellate Division ruling follows the general trend nationally in which courts are, by and large, rejecting insureds’ claims for coverage for business income losses due to government orders related to...more
In a timely reaffirmation of the Fifth Circuit’s 2007 ruling in Leonard v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., a Louisiana federal court recently upheld the application of an insurance policy’s Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause (“ACC”)...more
9/7/2021
/ Anti-Concurrent Causation Clauses ,
Bad Faith ,
Breach of Contract ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Hurricane Laura ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Natural Disasters ,
Policy Terms ,
Property Insurance ,
Real Estate Market ,
Severe Weather
A federal court recently held that ongoing insurance coverage issues should not prevent an appraisal from going forward as per an appraisal clause in the insurance policy. In DC Plastic Products Corp. v. Westchester Surplus...more
The Southern District of New York recently held that a contamination exclusion was ambiguous in the context of Covid-19-related business interruption losses. Accordingly, the court held that the issue was inappropriate to...more
4/16/2021
/ Business Interruption ,
Business Losses ,
Commercial Insurance Policies ,
Contamination ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Policy Exclusions ,
Policy Terms
A trial level court in North Carolina recently found coverage under first-party property insurance policies for the insured restaurants’ COVID-19-related business income losses. In North State Deli, LLC et al. v. Cincinnati...more
Last week Hurricane Laura became the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the state of Louisiana since 1856. The Category 4 storm claimed at least 10 lives and caused an estimated $4 to $7 billion in property...more
Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) has disrupted events, supply chains, sales, and entire industries. As a result, businesses are going to look to their property insurers to recuperate lost business income, as well as expenses related...more
3/18/2020
/ China ,
Civil Authority Coverage ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Insurance Claims ,
Policy Exclusions ,
Policy Terms ,
Property Damage ,
Property Insurance ,
Public Health
The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted events, supply chains, sales, and entire industries. As a result, businesses will likely look to their property insurers to recuperate lost business income, as well as...more
3/16/2020
/ Business Disruption ,
Business Interruption ,
Business Losses ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Insurance Claims ,
Liability Insurance ,
Policy Exclusions ,
Policy Terms ,
Property Damage ,
Public Health ,
Third-Party Liability
A recent decision from one of New York’s trial courts of general jurisdiction could have a chilling effect on written communications between an insurer and its retained counsel during a claim investigation. In Otsuka...more
10/29/2019
/ Breach of Contract ,
Confidential Communications ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Discovery ,
Discovery Disputes ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Investigations ,
Jurisdiction
Those familiar with first party insurance policies have undoubtedly encountered a recurring issue with the interpretation of appraisal provisions – what does it mean to disagree on the amount of loss? ...more