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
Delaware Supreme Court concludes that a letter from a lawyer informing an insured of possible lawsuits without identifying potential plaintiffs or demanding payment is not a “claim for damages” within the meaning of...more
Second Circuit Holds That Malpractice Insurer Has No Duty to Defend or to Indemnify Lawyer Because Of Business Enterprise Exclusion- Associated Industries Insurance Company sued its insureds, a lawyer, and his former law...more
For parties facing class action lawsuits, where the class seeks to recover for economic losses, there may still be opportunities for insurance coverage. Thus, where economic losses arise out of the purchase of products that...more
Mental state, in some form, is the common theme running through our first three cases this month. The Fifth Circuit decides whether directors and officers of an ice cream company, accused of breaching their fiduciary...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
Here are some of the leading insurance cases from the past month. The Sixth Circuit is the latest appellate court to address whether insurers must defend drug companies in local government opioid suits. Joining the Ohio...more
In Westfield National Insurance Co. v. Quest Pharmaceuticals, the Sixth Circuit held that two insurers owed no coverage obligations to Quest Pharmaceuticals in connection with 77 lawsuits filed against it alleging misconduct...more
Court Finds That Defense Documents Must Be Produced Because Placed “At Issue” by Late Notice- In this declaratory judgment action, American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance Company sought insurance coverage on behalf of its...more
On October 18, 2022, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted allowance of appeal in Kramer v. Nationwide Property and Casualty Insurance Co. regarding the issue of whether the Superior Court erred by finding that “emotional...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
Some important insurance decisions were handed down over the past month. We begin in Ohio, where public nuisance claims by state and local governments over opioids and lead paint were on full display. In Acuity, the...more
Pepsi-Cola Metro. Bottling Co. v. Emp’rs Ins. Co., 2022 Wisc. App. LEXIS 598 (Wisc. Ct. App. July 8, 2022) - Wisconsin Court of Appeals (in a divided decision) holds that a “post-loss” assignment of rights under a...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
Second Circuit Holds That Insurer Precluded From Relying On Exclusions Because Unreasonably Delayed Disclaiming While Basis Was, Or Should Have Been, Apparent- In December 2015, Luis Alberto was working on a construction...more
The Ohio Court of Appeals, applying Ohio law, has enforced an employment practices liability (“EPL”) carrier’s “other insurance” clause, holding that the insured’s commercial general liability (“CGL”) policy afforded primary...more
The Western District of North Carolina has held that the professional services exclusions of two different policies issued to a staffing agency negated any duty to defend a lawsuit alleging a pharmacy technician improperly...more
It’s common knowledge that a lawsuit must be timely reported to an insurer. But what exactly constitutes timely notice? The United States Court for the Middle District of Florida recently examined this question in National...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
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
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, applying Ohio law, has held that a D&O insurer had a duty to defend a wrongful death lawsuit against its insured because of a “discrepancy” between the...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
Applying Maine law, the United States District Court for the District of Maine has held that a legal professional liability insurer had a duty to defend an insured attorney against a suit alleging sexual assault of a client,...more
On November 23, 2021, the Montana Supreme Court issued an almost unanimous decision in National Indemnity Company v. State of Montana, a ten-year-old coverage dispute arising from claims against the State of Montana alleging...more
Court Holds That Contractor’s Insurer Must Defend Owner As Additional Insured In Personal Injury Action Filed By Subcontractor’s Employee- A premises owner hired a contractor to perform an oil-to-gas boiler conversion, and...more