In a fact intensive decision, the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bamford, Inc. v. Regent Ins. Co., 822 F.3d 403 (8th Cir. 2016), held that a fact question existed as to the insurance company's failure to settle a claim notwithstanding that the...
Year: 2016
Limiting the Scope of Ambiguity
Recently the Colorado Supreme Court in American Family Mutual Ins. Co. v. Hansen, 2016 WL 3398507 (Colo., filed 6/20/16) considered whether an extrinsic document, separate and apart from the insurance policy, could be used to create a policy ambiguity. The Court held...
Bad Faith Claim Accrual
The Delaware Supreme Court weighs in on when a bad faith claim accrues in a bad faith refusal to settle case. In Connelly v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 2016 WL 836983 (Del. March 4, 2016), the Intermediate Appellate Court found that the bad faith claim accrued...
Requirement for pro rata allocation of defense costs among successive insurers
The California Third District Court of Appeals recently required pro rata allocation of defense costs among successive insurers. In Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London v. Arch Specialty Ins. Co., 246 Cal.App.4th 418, 200 Cal.Rptr.3d 786 2016 WL 1436362 (3rd Dist....
Orphans in the Time on Risk Allocation
Who pays for the orphan? The Federal District Court in New York recently held that when an insurance company becomes insolvent the insured becomes responsible for the orphan's share created by the insolvency under a pro rata method of allocation involving successive...
Putting a subcontractor’s insurer on notice
Putting a subcontractor's insurer on notice. An interesting case recently came out of New York. In Spoleta Constr., LLC v. Aspen Ins. UK Ltd., 27 N.Y.3d 933, 50 N.E.3d 322 (N.Y. 2016), the Court held that a general contractor's insurance company's letter to a...
Insurance policy’s anti-assignment clause
Florida Appellate Court rules that an insurance policy's anti-assignment clause did not prohibit an insured from assigning policy proceeds to a contractor that the insured hired to repair the insured's property following a loss.The Court in Bioscience West, Inc. v....