News & Analysis as of

Contract Interpretation Insurance Litigation

Mayer Brown

Service Charge Obligations Do Not Include a Duty to Pay Inflated Insurance Commissions

Mayer Brown on

The reverberations from London Trocadero (2015) LLP v Picturehouse Cinemas Limited  [2025] EWHC 1247 (Ch) will be felt throughout the commercial property industry, and we predict it will contribute to a much needed...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Beware Misuse of Related-Claims Deemer Clauses in Claims-Made Policies

The hallmark of a claims-made liability policy is coverage exclusively for claims “first made” during the policy period, thus limiting the insurer’s risk to new claims asserted against the policyholder during a finite time...more

Zelle  LLP

Massachusetts Collapse Decision Highlights Importance of Careful Underwriting

Zelle LLP on

During the underwriting process, carriers should review affirmative coverages not only to ensure consistency with applicable exclusions but also to make sure that the coverages themselves are internally consistent. Failure to...more

Goldberg Segalla

Plaintiffs Win Appeal Regarding Ambiguous Language In Insurance Policy On Bodily Injury

Goldberg Segalla on

Jurisdiction: Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit - Mr. May died from Mesothelioma and the plaintiffs filed a wrongful death and survival action alleging the decedent was exposed to asbestos while working as a...more

Carlton Fields

Connecticut Federal Court Construes Ambiguous Policy Exclusion in Favor of Coverage, but Rejects Bad Faith Claim

Carlton Fields on

In A Priori Family Office LLC v. Valley Forge Insurance Co., the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut found the undefined term “surface water” in an all-risk insurance policy’s water exclusion ambiguous, so...more

Bennett Jones LLP

What Class Action Settlement Costs Will A Defendant’s Insurer Cover? The Ontario Superior Court of Justice Provides Some Answers

Bennett Jones LLP on

In Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance v Honda Canada, 2025 ONSC 2856, the Ontario Superior Court upheld an arbitral panel's conclusion that an umbrella insurance policy covered settled class counsel fees, but not...more

Zelle  LLP

Any is Not All and The Future is Not Now: The Contours of the Cosmetic Damage Exclusion Taking Shape

Zelle LLP on

In Iyengar v. Liberty Insurance Corporation, No. SA-21-CV-1091-FB, 2024 WL 5505300 (W.D. Tex. Dec. 13, 2024), District Judge Biery denied Plaintiffs’ Motion for Clarification regarding Magistrate Judge Bemporad’s...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

COVID Biz Interruption Coverage Denied by NY Court of Appeals

Rivkin Radler LLP on

On February 15, 2024, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the Appellate Division, First Department decision affirming dismissal of restaurant operator Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc.’s (CRO) complaint...more

Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP

Confined to the Four Corners by the Rules of Contract Interpretation

A Review of Shiloh Christian Center v. Aspen Specialty Insurance Company - The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the plain text of an insurance policy trumps the parties’ subjective intent and...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

A Missing Issue in “Blank Space” Insurance Ruling

Insurance coverage disputes often turn on the meaning of the specific words used in a policy. Norwegian Hull Club v. North Star Fishing Co., currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida,...more

Jenner & Block

Client Alert: First Circuit Parses Underlying Complaint to Find Duty to Defend and to Defeat Exclusions

Jenner & Block on

The duty of a liability insurer to defend a policyholder from litigation is typically described as broad and expansive, extending beyond the insurer’s duty to indemnify. The duty to defend generally obliges an insurer to...more

Carlton Fields

Fifth Circuit Leans on Well-Established Contractual Interpretation Doctrine to Preclude Coverage Under General Liability Policy

Carlton Fields on

To paraphrase Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a case “which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment” makes bad law. In the face of exceptionally tragic circumstances, however, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals...more

Carlton Fields

New York Federal Court Denies Reinsurer’s Motions for New Trial and Judgment as a Matter of Law, Modifies Accrual Date for...

Carlton Fields on

In a matter previously covered in this blog, the Northern District of New York was asked to determine whether Clearwater Insurance Co. (the reinsurer) was entitled to a new trial, a judgment as a matter of law, or an...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

The War Exclusion in a Time of War

The “war” exclusion has gotten more attention over the past couple of weeks in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For good reason. This exclusion, common in property and liability policies alike, typically eliminates...more

Jenner & Block

Is There a Limit to Insurer Unwillingness to Cover Claims for Unsolicited Marketing Communications? Two Decisions by the Seventh...

Jenner & Block on

Among the many unusual aspects of 2021 is that the same insurance company was before a federal appellate court on two separate but contemporaneous cases – one in which the insurer was asserting a lack of insurance coverage...more

Quarles & Brady LLP

2021 Wisconsin Insurance Case Law Year in Review

Quarles & Brady LLP on

Every year, Quarles & Brady’s Insurance Recovery Team compiles a list of important decisions by Wisconsin state and federal courts addressing insurance issues. We then summarize the cases to keep you informed of developments...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

Cozen O'Connor

Ninth Circuit Holds COVID-19 Business Interruption Losses Require Direct Physical Damage To The Property

Cozen O'Connor on

In March 2020, Mudpie Inc.—a San Francisco children’s store—ceased operations when California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all “non-essential” businesses to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the shut-down,...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Coverage Litigation Leapfrog: Why Venue Matters and How to Avoid Pre-emptive Strike Actions

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

With insurance policies being governed by state law, and interpretation varying from state to state, where your lawsuit is venued matters. There is a cyclical history of insurers and policyholders strategically filing suits...more

Cozen O'Connor

Eleventh Circuit Becomes Second Federal Appellate Court To Hold No Coverage For COVID-19 Business Losses

Cozen O'Connor on

In the second federal appellate ruling on Covid-19 business losses, the Eleventh Circuit has joined the Eighth Circuit in holding that they do not trigger coverage because they do not involve “physical loss” or “physical...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fifth Circuit Finds Potential Coverage for Data Breach; Interprets “Publication” Broadly

Cozen O'Connor on

Using general contract interpretation principles, the Fifth Circuit reversed summary judgment in favor of an insurer and found a duty to defend Landry’s in a data breach lawsuit. Landry’s Inc. v. The Insurance Company of the...more

BCLP

Briefcase Quarterly Update: Key Real Estate Cases - March 2021

BCLP on

The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd and others [2021] UKSC 1 - What was it about? ..The Supreme Court gave its view on various business interruption insurance policy clauses. ..The case was...more

Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP

The Unpredictable Of Florida's Supposedly Predictable Choice-Of-Law Test

For purposes of determining contract interpretation, Florida courts apply the lex loci contractus choice-of-law rule. The Supreme Court of Florida observed that lex loci contractus is an “inflexible rule” that exists “to...more

BCLP

Supreme Court hands down its judgment in the COVID-19 Business Interruption Insurance Test Case

BCLP on

The UK Supreme Court in the Test Case on Business Interruption Insurance brought by the FCA on behalf of policyholders has decided that the FCA’s appeal (on behalf of policyholders) should be substantially allowed, with...more

Cooley LLP

Blog: Supreme Court Finds in Favour of Policyholders in FCA COVID-19 Test Case

Cooley LLP on

This morning the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the FCA COVID-19 test case, heard on a leapfrog appeal (bypassing the Court of Appeal) from the first instance decision of Lord Justice Flaux and Mr. Justice Butcher....more

65 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 3

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide