Political pressure increasing on social media companies to police their platforms - Over the course of a week in August, the UK experienced widespread civil unrest with crimes such as rioting, vandalism, looting and...more
The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington decided an insurance coverage case involving Plaintiffs Benny and Guangying Cheung and Defendant Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company. Cheung...more
The Dallas Zoo has been the target of several criminal acts including animal theft, animal endangerment, vandalism, and suspected intentional injury to a vulture found dead with a suspicious wound....more
Last month, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (well, the bulletproof glass she’s encased in) was smeared with cake—apparently to protest climate change. The protester was a man disguised, in wig and makeup, as an elderly lady in...more
Civil Unrest, Riots, And Strikes - This is the fourth installment of our series of articles reviewing some of the key trends and developments currently impacting the U.S. insurance industry. Many commentators have...more
The Paycheck Protection Program closed on May 28, 2021. The SBA is no longer accepting new applications from participating lenders. The following FAQs are for informational purposes only and to assist borrowers who obtained...more
On December 27, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. The Act includes a roughly $900 billion COVID-19 relief package, known as the “Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits and...more
During the days and weeks following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, protests erupted in every state across the country. Although most of these protests remained peaceful, there were...more
On June 5, 2020, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued an emergency regulation aimed at assisting insureds who sustained damages from the looting and vandalism that has taken place throughout the...more
There have been unfortunate incidents of property damage to businesses across the nation. Part of the process of assessing the damages and losses is securing insurance coverage. Fortunately, most commercial property policies...more
I am willing to go out on a limb and say that if asked whether an animal, say, a raccoon, is capable of committing malicious criminal acts, most humans would agree that the issue is beyond dispute. But, alas, most humans...more
In the 8th century, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and ghouls. The Roman Empire gave us our tradition of bobbing for apples at Halloween. In colonial America, it took on a celebration of the...more
A United States District Court in Connecticut (“Court”) addressed in a September 26th opinion whether an insurance policy covered certain mold damage. See National Liability & Fire Ins. Co. and Boat America Corporation v....more
If you happen to live in, or have visited, a mid-size to large city in Canada or the United States over the past few years, you’ve likely seen a millennial cruise down the sidewalk on an electric scooter, sipping their Chai...more
Was it vandalism or was it theft? According to Connecticut District Court Judge Jeffrey Meyer, that was the $2 million question in Mercedes Zee Corp., LLC v. Seneca Ins. Co., 2015 WL 9311343 (D. Conn. Dec. 22, 2015). ...more
Lat week, Minnesota’s highest court unanimously held that a mortgagee’s recovery for vandalism damage to a vacant building is only barred by the vacancy clause if the insured’s acts caused the vacancy. The decision is ...more
Last month in what was a case of first impression in Tennessee, a unanimous panel of the state’s intermediate level appellate court joined those jurisdictions that have concluded that arson does not constitute a type of...more
Earlier this week an Oklahoma federal court addressed a mortgagee’s claim for vandalism loss – a topic we also discussed in Wednesday’s post. In American Modern Home Ins. Co. v. Tulsa Fed. Credit Union, 2015 WL 2372549, 2015...more
In February, we published a Post about a Florida decision that aligned that state with the clear majority of American courts that have held that the destruction of property by an intentionally set fire is encompassed within...more
In Ong v. Fire Insurance Exchange (No. B252773, filed 4/3/15), a California appeals court ruled that a vacancy exclusion limited to damage caused by “vandalism or malicious mischief” did not bar coverage for damage to a...more
Earlier this month a unanimous Florida appellate court joined a number of other states that have held that an all-risk policy exclusion for vandalism and malicious mischief operates to bar coverage for an arson loss. ...more
While most artists take pride in creating and protecting their works, many graffiti artists remain necessarily (sometimes famously) anonymous, since their art may also constitute criminal vandalism. In contrast to the...more