General Liability
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October 15, 2024
The 2024 Law360 Pulse Social Impact Leaders
Check out our Social Impact Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their engagement with social responsibility and commitment to pro bono service.
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October 11, 2024
Insurer Must Defend Flight Co. Over Propeller Injury Suit
An insurer must defend a flight training business against personal injury claims by a flight instructor who said an aircraft propeller injured him, an Illinois federal court ruled Friday, finding the company's late notice to the business's insurer did not void the potential for coverage.
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October 11, 2024
No Coverage For Wage Disclosure Suits, Insurer Says
An insurer said it has no duty to defend or indemnify two restaurant franchise operators accused of violating Washington's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, telling a federal court that the allegations do not trigger coverage under an employment practices liability insurance policy.
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October 11, 2024
Asbestos Claimants Say Kaiser Ch. 11 Plan Should Stand
Asbestos injury claimants in Kaiser Gypsum Co.'s bankruptcy case have asked the Fourth Circuit to uphold the company's Chapter 11 plan, saying the arguments against it by Kaiser's primary insurer are based on speculative harms.
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October 11, 2024
Subcontractor Owes Travelers $325K For Hotel Work Deal
A Travelers unit is entitled to recover $325,000 for payments made against its surety bonds to settle a general contractor's claims that a subcontractor abandoned work on an Idaho hotel, a Washington federal court ruled, finding the subcontractor liable under an indemnity agreement with Travelers.
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October 10, 2024
Insurers Win Big In Hawaii Climate Change Pollutant Suit
The Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling that AIG doesn't need to cover a suit accusing a Sunoco subsidiary of contributing to climate change drew praise from insurance carrier attorneys for finding that greenhouse gasses are an excluded pollutant, but policyholder attorneys took satisfaction in the court's expanded view of covered occurrences.
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October 10, 2024
Why So Hard To Say 'Denied'? Mich. Justices Ask Insurers
Michigan Supreme Court justices pushed insurers Wednesday to explain why they take issue with appellate rulings requiring them to explicitly say they have "denied" insureds' claims, asking what about including that word or evaluating claims as they normally do would create new obligations on the insurers.
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October 10, 2024
COVID Coverage Questions Linger As Challenges Wind Down
Nationwide efforts to recover insurance payouts for COVID-19 pandemic losses met a series of setbacks in recent weeks, largely bringing major litigation to a close even as questions linger over key coverage issues that could have lasting effects.
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October 10, 2024
Too Early To Decide Indemnification In Flood Row, BNSF Says
Railway giant BNSF told a California federal court that it's too early for the court to decide whether two Travelers units have a duty to indemnify BNSF in a lawsuit alleging that a track relocation project BNSF undertook caused significant flooding, noting the case is still pending.
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October 10, 2024
Suppliers' $7.6M Deal To End Daily Harvest Leek Claims OK'd
A New York federal judge has given the go-ahead to a $7.6 million settlement with suppliers for meal kit delivery service Daily Harvest Inc. to end claims from buyers that a lentil and leek meal caused gastrointestinal illness.
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October 10, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
A Hawaii petroleum company isn’t covered for underlying claims that it contributed to global warming, The Rockefeller University can continue to pursue bad faith and deceptive practice claims against its carriers in a coverage dispute over sex abuse claims, and an aircraft company is seeking $220 million for aircraft still in Russia. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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October 10, 2024
Rock Climbing School Not Covered In Fall Suit, Insurer Says
An insurer said it doesn't owe coverage to a rock climbing school in an underlying suit brought by the family of a teenager who was injured after he fell 35 feet while climbing, telling a North Carolina federal court that the policy does not provide coverage for joint ventures.
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October 10, 2024
Back-To-Back Storms Expose Outdated NFIP Holes, Pro Says
The one-two punch of hurricanes Helene and Milton should give policymakers another reason to bolster the country's leading flood insurer and rethink water risks, according to Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers and a leading figure among flood loss reduction professionals. Here, Law360 talks to Berginnis about how the back-to-back storms lay bare the country's flood risks.
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October 09, 2024
9th Circ. Grills Geico, Assignees Over Failed Settlement
A Ninth Circuit panel appeared conflicted over both Geico and a policyholder's assignees' arguments regarding whether the carrier acted in bad faith toward its insured when it prioritized a release of the insured's father-in-law during failed settlement negotiations with the family of a pedestrian fatally struck by the insured driver.
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October 09, 2024
Insurer Wins Ex-PwC Exec's Long-Term Disability Suit
An Illinois federal judge handed Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Co. a win in a federal benefits lawsuit from a former PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP executive who alleged she was wrongly denied long-term disability benefits after fibromyalgia left her unable to continue working.
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October 08, 2024
Underwriter Says Freight Co. Not Covered For Missing Cargo
An underwriter urged a Washington federal court to relieve it of any coverage obligations it may owe under a commercial auto policy to a freight company that is potentially on the hook for over $580,000 after a cargo broker claimed that a shipment of computer parts wasn't delivered.
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October 08, 2024
Hawaii Justices Hand AIG Win In Novel Climate Coverage Suit
AIG isn't obligated to cover a lawsuit accusing a Honolulu-based Sunoco subsidiary of contributing to climate change, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled, saying a pollution exclusion in the oil giant's policy encompasses greenhouse gas emissions.
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October 08, 2024
Insurer Says Kiwanis Abuse Claims Won't Trigger $35M Policy
An insurer told a Washington federal judge that because its coverage only kicked in at the $35 million level, it should be dismissed from litigation seeking payment of a multimillion-dollar judgment from insurers to resolve child sex abuse survivors' claims against a foster boys home run by Kiwanis International.
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October 07, 2024
Factory Mutual Must Fully Cover Plant Explosions, Suit Says
Petrochemicals maker Indorama Ventures accused Factory Mutual Insurance Co. in Texas federal court Monday of wrongly refusing to fully cover roughly $100 million in losses stemming from a series of major explosions in 2019 near an Indorama plant in Texas.
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October 07, 2024
No Defense Cost Reimbursement Owed Over Dam Flood Row
An insurer for an excavation subcontractor has no duty to equitably reimburse another insurer for the $832,000 it said it incurred defending various parties against claims that they failed to control floodwaters while working on a dam project, a Texas federal court ruled Monday.
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October 07, 2024
Mich. Supreme Court Snapshot: Insulin Prices, Disney Audit
The Michigan Supreme Court's first oral argument session of the 2024-25 term promises to be a busy one, involving an investigation into Eli Lilly's insulin prices with big implications for the scope of Michigan's consumer protection law and Disney's appeal of an order to turn over decades-old uncashed checks to the state treasurer.
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October 07, 2024
Akerman Adds In-House Atty From WR Berkley
An assistant vice president and counsel to W.R. Berkley Corp., a commercial lines property and casualty insurance holding company, left his in-house role to become a partner with Akerman LLP in New York, the firm announced Monday.
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October 04, 2024
Death Suit Coverage Dispute Must Be Heard In State Court
An Oklahoma federal court declined jurisdiction over an insurer's coverage dispute against a construction company stemming from an underlying wrongful death lawsuit, finding that keeping the action in federal court wouldn't settle the controversy and would "impede upon principles of federal-state comity."
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October 04, 2024
Insurer May Pay Only 1 Fla. Mass Shooting Victim
An insurer isn't required to pay anything to two families whose loved ones died in a mass shooting at a Miami mall because it already exhausted all its proceeds in paying one other family $50,000, a Florida federal judge ruled.
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October 04, 2024
Denver Charity Drops Fraudulent Grant Coverage Fight
A Denver-based nonprofit has agreed to drop its suit over insurance coverage for $349,000 in grants it gave to a different charity whose founder was accused by Colorado authorities of lying about its nonprofit status, according to court filings Friday.
Expert Analysis
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Insurance Considerations For Cos. Assessing New AI Risks
Because no two businesses will have the same artificial intelligence risk profile, they should consider four broad risk categories as a baseline for taking a proactive approach to guarding against AI-related exposures, say attorneys at Hunton.
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AI Brings New Insurance Concerns For Healthcare Providers
As the healthcare industry increasingly invests in medical artificial intelligence tools, it confronts a variety of liability risks that necessitate careful consideration and potential recalibration of providers' insurance programs, say Marialuisa Gallozzi and Megan Mumford Myers at Covington.
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Superfund Site Reopenings Carry Insured Risk, Opportunity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's reported plans to reopen certain Superfund sites citing the presence of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances raise notable liability concerns, but may also present unique opportunities for policyholders under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, say attorneys at Haynes and Boone.
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3 AI Regulation Developments Insurers Must Follow
Insurance regulators continue to actively develop regulations and guidance on the use of artificial intelligence, so insurers should be aware of recent developments from the Colorado Division of Insurance, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the New York Department of Financial Services, say attorneys at Willkie.
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Harvard's Broker Fight Shows Active Risk Management Is Key
Harvard University’s recently filed suit against its insurance broker for alleged malpractice in handling the Students for Fair Admissions claim illustrates that risk management requires the concerted effort of policyholders, brokers and insurers to protect against disastrous losses, say William McMichael and David Klein at Pillsbury.
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Illinois Trump Tower Ruling Illuminates Insurance 'Occurrence'
In Continental Casualty v. 401 North Wabash Venture, an Illinois appellate court found that Trump Tower was not entitled to insurance coverage for operating its HVAC system without a permit, helping to further define a widely litigated general liability insurance issue — what constitutes an "occurrence," say Robert Tugander and Greg Mann at Rivkin Radler.
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How Shareholder Activists Are Targeting Insurers
As shareholder activists take a closer look at the insurance industry, they are pushing insurers to take value-enhancing and climate-related measures — but insurers can prepare by anticipating activist concerns, maintaining robust shareholder engagement, and considering changes in response to the universal proxy rules, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Breaking Down Insurers' Improper Recoupment Efforts
In a recent trend, insurance companies have sought to recoup defense costs from their policyholders, but there are four counterarguments that policyholders can deploy to fend off these concerning recoupment efforts, say William Passannante and Nicholas Bradley at Anderson Kill.
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Insurers Should Prepare For 'Black Swan' Climate Disasters
As rapid climate change results in increased risk of casualties and property loss from rare, severe weather events, the insurance industry should take five crucial steps toward evolving and continuing operations, including advanced analytic techniques and investments in alternative energy sources, say Stephen Brown and Irena Maier at Wilson Elser.
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How Ill. Supreme Court Could Shape Statutory Violation Cases
In Fausett v. Walgreens, the Illinois Supreme Court will take up the question of whether a violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement, and any outcome could significantly change the litigation landscape in Illinois, say Donald Patrick Eckler and Joshua Zhao at Freeman Mathis.
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3 Quirks Of New Jersey Insurance Coverage Law
There are a multitude of state-specific requirements and nuances that make New Jersey insurance law unique, including in the areas of duty to defend, reservation of rights and bad faith, say attorneys at Goldberg Segalla.
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Conn. Insurers Should Note Stricter Market Exit Oversight
The Connecticut Insurance Department recently issued a bulletin that reflects a unique and stricter approach to insurers' market withdrawals and reductions in property and casualty business, making clear that it will not assess compliance based on an insurer's intent, but on the effect of the insurer's actions, says Elizabeth Retersdorf at Day Pitney.
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Extreme Weather And Renewable Project Insurance Coverage
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
The regularity and severity of extreme weather events driven by climate change are putting renewable energy projects increasingly at risk — so project owners, contractors and investors should understand the issues that can arise in these situations when seeking recovery under a builder's risk insurance policy, say Paul Ferland and Joshua Tumen at Cozen O'Connor.