Jealous husbands, protection payments, defective earplugs, opioids, and abuse of process form the backdrop to our September Insurance Update.
We begin with two cases from Delaware’s high court.
The first reaffirms principles stated in its 2022 Rite Aid decision, this time in connection with CVS’s attempts at coverage for opioid claims lodged against it.
The second considers what “you” means in a liability policy and who must make the payments needed to exhaust the insured’s self-insured retention.
Switching from SIRs to deductibles, a North Carolina federal judge endorsed an insurer’s settlement within the deductible where the insured wanted to roll the dice at trial. The court held that the insurer did not have to put the insured’s interests ahead of its own.
“Occurrence,” or lack thereof, was the issue in our next two cases. A homeowner claimed he fired shots in self-defense. And a company paid protection money so that terrorists would not attack its projects. The Sixth Circuit and a Texas federal judge considered whether claims arising from this conduct involved an “occurrence.”
Policyholders sometime confuse abuse of process with malicious prosecution. A Minnesota federal judge didn’t and honored the distinction when considering the offenses that qualify for Personal Injury coverage.
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