Texas House Passes Pandemic Liability Protection Act
More Emerging Litigation Claims and Demands from COVID-19
When someone you love dies in an auto crash, it is a terrible tragedy. When the accident was caused by the actions of a negligent driver, Florida law allows family members to recover compensation for their loss by filing a...more
Over the past five plus years, the Missouri legislature has continued to grant insurer’s new rights and protections. This includes requirements for time-limited demands, interpleader protections and the ability to intervene...more
Insurers attempting to accept a time-limited demand (often called a “Holt” demand in Georgia) must adhere to every term and condition of performance therein, even those that appear immaterial; otherwise, a court may find that...more
Supplemental Payments provisions are present in almost every liability policy. These provisions generally detail the insurer’s responsibility for interest and costs awarded in suits that it has undertaken to defend....more
In Helguera v. Mid-Century Insurance Co., California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal held that an intentional acts exclusion in the liability coverage part of a homeowners insurance policy issued by Mid-Century Insurance...more
A new Illinois law that aims to increase jury awards demonstrates that juries are not the only culprits of social inflation. Certainly, juries can render nuclear and thermonuclear verdicts, disregard jury instructions, place...more
On March 24, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 837 into law, effecting sweeping reform of Florida’s tort laws. Some of the most notable changes are to Florida’s frameworks for negligence, insurance,...more
A federal district court, applying Missouri law, has held that an insurer had no duty to defend or indemnify an insured because the underlying litigation alleged intentional conduct that was barred by an intentional acts...more
On February 15, 2022, the United States Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Southern District of Florida’s summary judgment victory for GEICO, finding that no reasonable jury could conclude that GEICO had...more
The last time we looked at litigation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, it appeared that businesses and their insurers faced a grave risk of being buried by COVID-related lawsuits. So far, however, the worst fears within...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently ruled in United Specialty Insurance Co. v. Bani Auto Group Inc. that United Specialty Insurance Co. did not have a duty to indemnify its insureds in...more
Welcome to this 36th issue of Unprecedented. When we published our first issue on March 24, our understanding of the type of litigation to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic was much like our understanding of the virus itself:...more
In National Fire & Marine Insurance Company v. Hampton, No. 19-17235 (9th Cir. Oct. 21, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that a doctor’s guilty plea to the unlawful distribution of a controlled substance barred insurance...more
Applying Nevada law, the Ninth Circuit has held that a professional liability insurer did not have a duty to defend or indemnify a doctor for a wrongful death action because the doctor’s guilty plea triggered an exclusion for...more
This 26th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees us returning to now-familiar topics involving liability protection for businesses, wrongful death lawsuits (particularly those...more
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, applying New York law, has concluded that an insurer waived the right to assert a policy exclusion as a coverage defense in a declaratory judgment action after...more
Coverage under most commercial general liability (CGL) policies applies only to liability arising from an “accident.” As such, injury or damage that an insured “expected or intended” to occur is not covered....more
This 11th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, identifies news reports placing the number of COVID-19 filings at around 2,700, with insurance coverage disputes former the single largest...more
Since our prior post from last week, additional COVID-19 coverage lawsuits have been filed throughout the United States, and themes and insights concerning theories of coverage continue to emerge. At least four new...more
In a significant and likely influential decision, the Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed a lower court decision and held that the insured's intent—not that of the victim—controls whether or not bodily injury is an...more
Underinsured Motorist ("UIM") coverage is an incredibly important source of insurance in car accident cases involving personal injuries. Liability insurance pays claims for someone when they are at-fault for an accident;...more
On November 11, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Aggreko, L.L.C. v. Chartis Specialty Ins. Co., No. 18-40325, 2019 WL 5866880 (5th Cir. Nov. 11, 2019) that, under both Texas and Louisiana law, a...more
A federal district court in Ohio recently attempted to shed some light on when internal communications between an ERISA plan administrator and its in-house counsel are discoverable and when they are protected by the...more
Sadly, individuals are injured across North Carolina every day in many different ways. When injuries, or even deaths, happen, it often isn't the injured or deceased person's fault. In these cases, the injured person or...more
On March 18, 2019, the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision holding that Sedgwick Claims Management Services made reasonable and prompt efforts to settle a nursing home liability claim, and therefore was not...more