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Insurance Litigation Insurance Industry Contract Terms

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Appellate Judge Proposes Possible Use of GenAI for Contract Interpretation – Recognizes That AI Hallucinates but Flesh-And-Blood...

By now, most lawyers have heard of judges sanctioning lawyers for misuse of generative AI, typically for not fact checking the outputs. Other judges have issued local rules governing use of or prohibiting AI. These actions...more

Marshall Dennehey

Take a Closer Look: The Precise Language of an Out-of-State Coverage Provision Leads To Varying Results

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Key Points: Where the language in an insurance contract is plain and unambiguous, the courts must interpret the terms of the contract according to their plain meaning as written....more

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP

Tort Choice-of-Law Principles Apply to Bad Faith Claims

In a recent decision, the Ohio Supreme Court held that Section 145 of the Restatement of the Law 2d, Conflict of Laws must be applied when determining the state law applicable to an insured’s bad faith claim. Noting that bad...more

Jenner & Block

Client Alert: A Minimum is Not a Maximum: The Texas Supreme Court Rejects a Common Insurer Tactic to Reduce Additional Insured...

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It is an all-too-common scenario for insurance practitioners. Company A hires an independent contractor to perform work on its premises. Their agreement specifies that Contractor will procure liability insurance—often...more

Maron Marvel

Contractual Additional Insureds – What Coverage? The Texas Supreme Court Weighs In

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Primary and excess insurance carriers and their counsel need to pay close attention to a new Texas Supreme Court case Exxon Mobil vs. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Starr Indemnity &...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Failure to Timely Produce in Discovery Underlying Written Contract with Insured Prevented General Contractor from Establishing...

Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company (“Voyager) issued a commercial liability insurance policy to MRB Construction, Inc. (“MRB Construction”), a framing subcontractor. As is common with such policies, MRB Construction’s policy...more

Cozen O'Connor

Texas Supreme Court Axes Policyholder’s Attempt to Expand Insurer Tort Liability

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In Elephant Insurance Co., LLC v. Kenyon, the Supreme Court of Texas reiterated the framework of an insurer’s common-law duties to insureds under Texas law. In applying that framework to the facts of the case, the Court...more

Hinshaw & Culbertson - Insights for Insurers

The Bell Tolls For the "Bellefonte Cap"

In 2016, Best's Review published our article titled "The Bellefonte Cap Returns." As we explained, the Cap stemmed from the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1990 in Bellefonte Reinsurance Co. v....more

Goodwin

Supreme Court Favours Policyholders In COVID-19 Business Interruption Claims

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On 15 January 2021, judgment was handed down in the leapfrog appeal heard by the Supreme Court in the test case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to the responsiveness of business interruption insurance...more

White and Williams LLP

Unringing the Bellefonte Rule

On March 2, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued its long-anticipated ruling in the Global v. Century case. More than five years after applying the Bellefonte Rule to hold that a...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Oddball Exclusions Are Not All Fun and Games – What the Court Got Wrong in Princeton Excess & Surplus Lines Insurance Co. v. Hub...

Hub City Enterprises Inc. and Wall St. Enterprises of Orlando Inc. ran an event called “Rum Fest 2017” in Orlando, Fla. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But one of the partygoers, who apparently paid to attend the festival, was...more

Zelle  LLP

Vague Contract Terms Do Not Always Mean The Insurer Loses

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A seminal rule of contract construction is the contra proferentem doctrine — summarized as “the contract is construed against the drafter.” This rule is a long-standing principle of common law contract interpretation,...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Insurer Pushing Settlement Off the Rails? A Covenant Not to Execute May Put Things Back on Track

As coverage counsel, we see the situation arise time and again: facing down substantial potential liability in a pending lawsuit, a policyholder engages in good-faith settlement discussions with the plaintiff. After animated...more

White and Williams LLP

New Jersey Court Washes Away Insurer’s Waiver of Subrogation Arguments

Subrogating insurers often address waiver of subrogation clauses in the form contracts drafted by the American Institute of Architects. In ACE Am. Ins. Co. v. Am. Med. Plumbing, No. A-5395-16T4, 2019 N.J. Super. LEXIS 45...more

White and Williams LLP

PA District Court Holds Newly Formed Arbitration Panel Should Decide Consolidation Dispute

In Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company v. Everest Reinsurance Company, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania held that procedural issues relating to the interpretation of...more

Butler Snow LLP

Contracts May “Legally” Obligate a Party to Pay, Even Without a Court Judgment

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Time and again, courts have been tasked with construing ambiguous and inconsistent terms in contracts. Recently, the Sixth Circuit revisited the issue of interpreting contractual language in Dark Horse Express, LLC v. Lancer...more

Carlton Fields

Second Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for Bona Fide Purchaser in STOLI Action

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In a June 8, ruling in AEI Life v. Lincoln Benefit Life Co., the Second Circuit upheld the District Court for the Eastern District of New York’s application of New York’s two-year incontestability period to a STOLI policy....more

White and Williams LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Choice of Law Ruling Vacates a $13.7 Million Verdict Against Travelers

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On July 16, 2018, the Delaware Supreme Court held in Travelers Indemnity Company v. CNH Industrial America, LLC, No. 420, 2017 (Del. Jul. 16, 2018), that a court’s choice of law inquiry in an insurance coverage dispute should...more

Carlton Fields

COI Litigation Update

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Life insurers that defend challenges to their exercises of discretion to adjust cost of insurance (COI) rates on universal life insurance policies continue to seek opportunities to narrow the scope of the claims through early...more

Hogan Lovells

Drake, a redefining judgment on breach of mandate and contractual damages

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In a precedent setting judgment, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Drake Flemmer & Orsmond Inc & Another v Gajjar NO [2017] ZASCA 169 (1 December 2017) pronounced on the principles applicable in respect of assessment of...more

Carlton Fields

SDNY Ruling Narrows Claims in COI Suit

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In EFG Bank AG, Cayman Branch v. AXA and The Duffy 2004 LLC v. AXA, in a February 14 ruling, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company earned a sweet victory on its motion for partial dismissal of the complaints in two...more

Burr & Forman

Additional Insured Status: Playing The Speak-Out Game On A Construction Project

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Last weekend we played Speak-Out: Kids versus Parents, a game where you use a plastic thingy to obstruct your speech capabilities.  The winning team is the one that guesses the most phrases.  Reading and understanding an...more

Carlton Fields

Insurance Receiver’s Preemption Argument Under Mccarran-Ferguson Fails To Avoid Arbitration Of Reinsurance Dispute

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The receiver for Gramercy Insurance Company sought to avoid arbitration of a reinsurance dispute with Contractor’s Bonding, Ltd., by arguing the FAA was reverse preempted under the McCarran-Ferguson Act....more

Hogan Lovells

Spot the defect

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A County Court decision has examined whether a deed which failed for invalid execution can survive as a simple agreement and whether, when that defect is apparent on the face of the deed, a party seeking to rely on that deed...more

Carlton Fields

California Court Considers Enforceability Of Arbitration Clause In Reinsurance Related Agreement Applying Nebraska Law

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In a case involving a reinsurance participation agreement (RPA), a California trial court has examined the interplay between two seemingly irreconcilable contract provisions: one that provided for the arbitration of any...more

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