In an extensive ruling, a Texas Court of Appeals in Kenyon v. Elephant Ins. Co., LLC, No. 04-18-00131-CV, 2020 WL 1540392 (Tex. App. Apr. 1, 2020), held, on first impression, that an insurer's claim handlers owed the insured a direct duty to prevent physical harm to a...
Month: October 2020
DEPRECIATING LABOR COSTS IN DETERMINING ACV IN NORTH CAROLINA
The North Carolina Supreme Court in Accardi v. Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co., 373 N.C. 292, 838 S.E.2d 454 (2020), held that a property insurer was allowed to depreciate the cost of labor in calculating ACV under a policy. In this case, a storm caused damage to the...
TEXAS SUPREME COURT REJECTS THE USE OF EXTRINSIC EVIDENCE IN DECIDING THE DUTY TO DEFEND BY UPHOLDING A STRICT EIGHT-CORNERS RULE
Recently, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals certified the following question to the Texas Supreme Court: "Is the policy-language exception to the eight-corners rule articulated in B. Hall Contracting, Inc. v. Evanston Ins. Co., 447 F.Supp.2d 634 (N.D. Tex. 2006),...
RETROACTIVE PAYMENT CURES FAILURE TO DEFEND
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in Choinsky v. Employers Insurance Co. of Wausau, 390 Wis. 2d 209, 938 N.W.2d 548 (2020), held that an insurance company's retroactive payment of its insured's defense costs satisfied the insurer's duty to defend, thereby insulating the...