News & Analysis as of

Contract Interpretation Policy Exclusions

Zelle  LLP

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

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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

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

Jenner & Block

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

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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

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...

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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

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

Zelle  LLP

Spa Virus Coverage Ruling Misses The Mark

Zelle LLP on

In response to the wave of litigation over COVID-19-related business income claims, an overwhelming majority of courts considering the relevant policy language — approximately 80% — have found no coverage as a matter of law...more

Gould + Ratner LLP

Policyholders See New Developments in COVID-19 Case Law

Gould + Ratner LLP on

Insurers across the nation continue to file motions to dismiss COVID-19 cases brought by policyholders on three primary grounds: 1. there is no” physical loss or damage” to the covered property, 2. there is no “prohibition...more

Carlton Fields

The No Corners Rule? New York Federal Court Holds No Duty to Defend Where There Is No Possible Legal or Factual Basis for...

Carlton Fields on

Under New York law, an insurer’s duty to defend ends if it establishes as a matter of law that there is no possible factual or legal basis on which it might eventually be obligated to indemnify its insured. This rule was...more

JAMS

[PODCAST] Resolving Business Interruption Disputes Caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

JAMS on

Business interruption is on the minds of many, especially now as the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented legal and business challenges. In this new podcast from JAMS, two well-respected neutrals with extensive...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Oddball Exclusions Are Not All Fun and Games – What the Court Got Wrong in Princeton Excess & Surplus Lines Insurance Co. v. Hub...

Hub City Enterprises Inc. and Wall St. Enterprises of Orlando Inc. ran an event called “Rum Fest 2017” in Orlando, Fla. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But one of the partygoers, who apparently paid to attend the festival, was...more

Carlton Fields

A Lesson in Sticking to Your Guns: Court Reverses Course and Finds No Duty to Defend or Indemnify on a Motion for Reconsideration

Carlton Fields on

On May 1, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia held that a firearms exclusion in a general liability insurance policy applied to bar coverage for an underlying action arising from a shooting at the...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

“That Particular Part” – Yet More

Massachusetts Appeals Court Gets It Right – Mostly - Hot on the heels of the Federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in MTI, Inc. v. Employers Insurance Company of Wausau, __ F.3d __, 2019 WL 321423 (10th Cir....more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Dictionary Guides Court in Multimillion-Dollar Coverage Dispute

A little under two years ago, we wrote about the fatal Oxford comma—you know, the one that comes before “and” in a list—and the impact of its omission on a court’s interpretation of a Maine employment statute. The court...more

White and Williams LLP

Vermont Supreme Court Holds “False Pretense” Exclusion Ambiguous in Phishing Scam

Last week, the Vermont Supreme Court in Rainforest Chocolate, LLC v. Sentinel Insurance Company, 2018 VT LEXIS 240 (Vt. Dec. 28, 2018), held that the “False Pretense” exclusion in a business-owner policy did not exclude loss...more

Robinson+Cole ERISA Claim Defense Blog

Ninth Circuit "Interprets" Accident Plan; "Direct and Sole Cause" Doesn't Mean What It Says

In Dowdy v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 16-15824, 2018 U.S. App. Lexis 12648 (9th Cir. May 16, 2018), the Ninth Circuit ruled that an accident plan that covers “accidental injury that is the Direct and Sole Cause of a Covered Loss”...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

Fifth Circuit Requests Input from the Supreme Court of Texas Regarding Interpretation of Commercial General Liability (“CGL”)...

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The rule courts generally employ to interpret undefined words in insurance policies — essentially, to look to the words’ plain or ordinary meaning — sounds simple. However, many times, there is more than one meaning of such...more

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