Hinshaw Releases Second Edition of Duty to Defend: A Fifty-State Survey
Loading and Unloading Under GL and Auto Policies: 2022
Prior & Pending Litigation
What is a Damron Agreement?
Merchants Preferred Insurance Company filed a declaratory judgment action in New York seeking a declaration that it had no duty to defend or to indemnify its insureds in an underlying Florida personal injury action arising...more
The Connecticut Appellate Court recently provided guidance on what does not constitute property damage under a typical contractor’s Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy in Westchester Modular Homes of Fairfield...more
In our January insurance update, we include three state cases addressing some less common situations. It’s not often that a pollution exclusion is interpreted in the context of an auto policy. But the South Dakota Supreme...more
In Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Carmichael, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, applying Alabama law, entered summary judgment ruling that Nationwide Fire Insurance Co. had no duty to...more
Southern District Holds That Contractor’s Carrier Has Duty To Defend ConEd Even Though Contractor’s Work Ended Months Before The Accident-A pedestrian tripped and fell on a Bronx sidewalk, and she sued the owner of the...more
The insureds owned a house covered by an all-risk homeowner’s insurance policy issued by Erie Insurance Company of New York that provided coverage for damage to the house unless specifically excluded. The policy contained an...more
The insureds, a country club and motorcycle group, held an annual motorcycle rally. They were sued by two motorcycle riders who were struck by an automobile as the riders and automobile were entering the premises of the club...more
Long-tail claims involve continuous or progressive injuries that occur over the course of multiple years. Often these claims occur in the context of long-latency diseases, such as those arising from asbestos exposure, or...more
A few years back, we discussed the Montana Supreme Court’s Parker decision, which interpreted an earth movement exclusion in a first-party claim under a homeowner’s policy. There, a boulder dislodged from a hillside and...more
Coverage disputes often center on whether the policy language is clear. Under the rules of contract construction, unambiguous language in an insurance policy must be given its plain and ordinary meaning. Sometimes,...more
An intentional act may not be an “occurrence” even when there is no intent to cause harm, according to a California appellate court’s recent ruling in Ghukasian v. Aegis Security Insurance Co.1 Ghukasian involved an insured...more
The Court of Appeals of Arkansas, applying Arkansas law, has affirmed a trial court’s decision that an insurer had no duty to defend where the insured received a demand letter constituting a claim under the policy prior to...more
Texas practitioners can add a new term to their legal vocabulary: “the Monroe exception.” The Texas Supreme Court has finally weighed in on whether to create an exception to the eight corners rule when determining if an...more
In February, the Supreme Court of Texas issued two opinions important to Texas’s duty-to-defend analysis. First, the court settled a split among Texas appellate courts by endorsing a limited exception to the eight-corners...more
Causation, an issue courts often wrestle with when deciding insurance coverage issues, lands the starring role in our February Insurance Update. •A county experienced higher costs due to the opioid crisis. Does its...more
For decades, an insurer’s duty to defend under Texas law was determined exclusively by reviewing the insurance contract and the allegations of the complaint under the “eight-corners rule.” All of this changed last week when,...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently confirmed that liability insurers have a duty to defend their insureds in construction defect cases when the underlying complaint alleges damage to property...more
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A federal district court, applying California law, has held that an insurer owed a duty to defend and indemnify an insured in an underlying nuisance litigation under a not-for-profit D&O policy, as the policy’s pollution,...more
On January 5, 2022, the Third Circuit confirmed that the “potentially covered” standard for the duty to defend is far broader than the “actually covered” standard for the duty to indemnify, also confirming that the duty to...more
On January 11, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in Siplast, Incorporated v. Employers Mutual Casualty Company, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 795 (5th Cir. Jan. 11, 2022), finding that...more
On Oct. 28, 2021, the Nevada Supreme Court in Zurich American Insurance Company v.. Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company, 137 Nev. Adv. Op. 66, held that an insured can rely on extrinsic facts to show that an insurer has a...more
Court Dismisses Claims Against Insurer For Bad Faith Failure To Settle, And For Consequential And Punitive Damages- Scottsdale issued a policy to Watershed Ventures, LLC, which included Directors and Officers Liability...more
In Berkley Specialty Ins. Co. v. Masterforce Constr. Corp., No. 4:19-CV-01162, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14006 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 26, 2021) (Brann, J.), the Court recently concluded that, under Pennsylvania law, all reasonably...more
In our March Insurance Update, we discuss four state supreme court cases and four cybercrime cases. The state high courts address: •From whose perspective should a consent-to-settle provision be judged? •What standard...more