The Colorado Court of Appeals in Brown v. American Standard Ins. Co. of Wisconsin, 436 P.3d 597 (Colo. App. 2019) recently found that the insurance company's reason for cancelling the policy must be accurate for the cancellation to be effective. The Colorado Court of...
Year: 2019
PERMISSIVE DRINKING?
The Missouri Supreme Court held in Griffitts v. Old Republic Insurance Co., 2018 WL 3235859 (Mo. 7/3/18) that an intoxicated employee, who had been driving a company vehicle while intoxicated, was a permissive user notwithstanding his violation of company procedure....
ADJUSTER’S FALSE REPRESENTATIONS CONSTITUTE CONSUMER FRAUD ACT VIOLATION IN NEW JERSEY
In Alpizar-Fellas v. Favero, 906 F.3d 910 (3rd Cir. 2018) (interpreting New Jersey law) the Court found that an adjuster's alleged fraudulent representations which induced the insured to sign a release that the insured did not understand gave rise to a private right...
WHEN DOES A STATUTORY BAD FAITH CLAIM ACCRUE UNDER DELAWARE LAW?
Delaware has a three-year statute of limitations period for the filing of a bad faith claim. In Homeland Ins. Co. of New York v. CorVel Corp., 197 A.3d 1042 (Del. 2018) the Court held that the limitations period began to run when the insured could plead a bad faith...
TOO LATE!
The Colorado Supreme Court in Schultz v. GEICO Casualty Co., 429 P.3d 844 (Colo. 2018) recently held that later-developed evidence was irrelevant to a UIM claim because the denial had taken place prior to the development of that evidence. In this case, the insured,...
9th Circuit Requires That Any Illness or Infirmity Causing or Contributing to Injury For Purposes of Accidental Death and Dismemberment Benefits Had to be a Substantial Cause of the Loss to Avoid Coverage
In Dowdy v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 890 F.3d 802 (9th Cir. 2018), the insured sought benefits under an accidental death and dismemberment policy for an amputation of his leg resulting from a car accident. The leg was seriously injured as a result of the accident and was...
How Many Car Accidents Does It Take To Constitute An Occurrence?
An interesting case from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals considered the question of how many collisions constitute a single occurrence. In Evanston Ins. Co. v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co., 909 F.3d 143 (5th Cir. 2018) the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a...
Untimely Ror Letter Leads To Estoppel
Recently the Kansas Supreme Court held that the insurance company's untimely reservation of rights letter estopped the insurer from denying coverage. In Becker v. The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Co., 419 P.3d 212 (Kan. 2018), the trial court ruled that the insurance...
Timing Is Everything When It Comes To Malicious Prosecution Coverage
The Illinois Supreme Court in First Mercury Ins. Co. v. Ciolino, 107 N.E.3d 240, appeal denied, 108 N.E.3d 840 (Ill. 2018), considered when a malicious prosecution claim became an "offense" for purposes of insurance coverage and whether the claim fell within the...
Choose Your Own Poison
The Washington Court of Appeals recently adopted a choose your own poison approach to cases where an insurer exhausts its policy limits in settlement of one claim while other related claims remain unresolved. In Singh v. Zurich American Ins. Co., 428 P.3d 1237 (Wash....