Toxic Torts › Civil Procedure › Commercial Law & Contracts

Insurance Recovery Law -- May 01, 2013

Insurers Had Duty to Defend Regardless of Whether Allegations in Underlying Cases Are True or False, Says Illinois Court - On April 12, 2013, an Illinois trial court ordered that Travelers Casualty & Surety Company,...more

Fourth Circuit Restricts “Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser” Defense

On April 4, 2013, the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in PCS Nitrogen Inc. v. Ashley II of Charleston that, among other things, may limit the availability of the “bona fide prospective purchaser” (“BFPP”) defense that Congress...more

Fifth Circuit Reverses District Court in Deepwater Horizon Insurance Coverage Litigation and Grants BP Unlimited Access to...

On March 1, 2013, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in In re Deepwater Horizon, No. 12-30230, 2013 WL 776354 (5th Cir. March 1, 2013), held that BP PLC ("BP") can access...more

Reinsurance Redux - March 2013

In This Issue: - New York Court of Appeals Reverses Decision Requiring Reinsurers to Follow the Fortunes on Asbestos Settlement Where There Were Questions of Fact With Respect to Reasonableness of Reinsured’s...more

Recent Changes To The BP Claims Program

The BP oil spill started with the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. The failure of BP Oil to cap the spill promptly resulted in millions of barrels of crude oil being released into Gulf...more

Policy Observer - January 2013

It has been nearly three months since Superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast of the United States. With several hundred thousand residents still without homes and many businesses still operating out of temporary facilities,...more

Virginia Supreme Court Ends Chinese Drywall Debate

We are pleased to report that the Virginia Supreme Court has tacked down – or, more appropriately, “drywall-ed in” – the issue of whether a pollution exclusion in a property insurance policy precludes coverage for Chinese...more

Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Update - October 2012: Washington Supreme Court Makes a Surprising About-Face in Third-Party...

The Supreme Court of Washington recently decided the case of Macias v. Saberhagen Holdings, Inc. – a decision that flows against the trend of courts ruling that manufacturers of non-asbestos containing products cannot be held...more

Not An Oscar Winner: A Case About Indemnification

It's hard for me to think of a case I'd rather not write about than GR&S Atlantic Beach, LLC v. Hull, 2012 NCBC 52. It's not just that it's deathly boring or that it involves the interpretation of poorly written transaction...more

Rhode Island's Easily Triggered Duty of An Insurer to Defend Environmental Cases

The First Circuit recently confirmed the traditional rule that it doesn’t take much to trigger an insurer’s duty to defend a policyholder against an environmental claim. In Travelers Casualty and Surety Company v. Providence...more

Justices Weigh Arguments on Stacking in Toxic Tort Cases

California Supreme Court justices heard arguments recently in a novel case that could significantly impact the amount insurers must pay to clean up toxic waste....more

Watch your Greenhouse Gases

In AES Corp. v. Steadfast Ins. Co., Record No. 100764, 2012 WL 1377054 (Va. April 20, 2012), the Supreme Court of Virginia found that a lawsuit alleging damages caused by the insured’s emission of greenhouse gases was not an...more

BLG Monthly Update, May 2012

Crucial commas, greasy chips and electronic contracts -- all this and more in the BLG Monthly Update for May 2012!...more

Subject Matter Jurisdiction Under RCRA: Testing the Limits of the Commerce Clause in a Citizens' Suit

Courts have traditionally construed federal jurisdiction of environmental statutes expansively, consistent with their remedial intent. However, recent opinions in Voggenthaler v. Maryland Square, LLC, Case 2:08-cv-1618 (D....more

Rethinking Successor Liability under CERCLA

The PCB contamination in the Lower Fox River in Wisconsin continues to spawn novel Superfund decisions. The latest is US v. NCR, in which Judge Greisbach of the Eastern District of Wisconsin reversed his initial ruling, made...more

Case Note: US Supreme Court Rejects Attempt To Curb Class Actions (2010)

This case note was published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. It summarizes the 2010 United States Supreme Court decision in Shady Grove v. Allstate. The Court resolved a conflict between a New York Statute, which...more

California Appellate Court Holds That Insurer Is Not Required to Show Proof of Prejudice to Deny Coverage Based On Failure to...

In Venoco, Inc. v. Gulf Underwriters Ins. Co., 2009 WL 1875640 (July 1, 2009), the Second District Court of Appeal affirmed a summary judgment entered in favor of Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company (“Gulf”) with regard to...more

Maryland Casualty Co. v. W.R. Grace & Co., Inc.--Conn.

Memorandum of Law of W.R. Grace & Co.--Conn. in Support of Its Motion for Relief From the Court's Earlier Ruling on Choice of Law

Defendant W. R. Grace & Co.--Conn. (“Grace”) submits this Memorandum of Law in support of its motion for relief from the Court's previous choice of law determination, based on the Court's inherent authority to modify an...more