In World Harvest Church v. Grange Mutual Casualty Co., 148 Ohio St. 3d 11, 68 N.E.3d 738 (Ohio 2016), reconsideration denied, 146 Ohio St. 3d 1473, 54 N.E.3d 1270., the Ohio Supreme Court upheld an abuse or molestation exclusion in a CGL policy which stated that there...
Firm News
Actual Cash Value Does Not Permit Depreciation of Labor Costs in Mississippi
The Federal District Court in Mississippi held in Titan Exterior, Inc. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd, London, 2018 WL 1057139, _____ F.Supp.3d _____ (No. Dist. Miss. February 26, 2018) that the concept of ACV did not allow for depreciation of labor costs. In this...
Breach of Contract Exclusion Trumps Advertising and Personal Injury Coverage According to a California Court
In James River Insurance Co. v. Medolac Laboratories, 290 F.Supp.3d 956 (C.D. Cal. 2018) the court held that a CGL policy's breach of contract exclusion precluded personal and advertising injury coverage in a situation where the insured promised not to commit any...
Virginia Federal District Court Considers “All Sums” Allocation Under New York Law
In Hopeman Brothers v. Continental Casualty Co., 307 F.Supp.3d 433 (E.D.Va. 2018) the Virginia Federal District Court, in an asbestos case, determined that New York's substantive law applied to the allocation issue before the court. The problem for the Virginia...
The Seventh Circuit Applies Innocent Co-insured Doctrine In Displacing The Insurance Policy’s Intentional Act Exclusion
In Streit v. Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Co., 863 F.3d 770 (7th Cir. 2017), the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the insurance company could not rely on the policy's intentional act exclusion to bar innocent co-insureds from receiving coverage for...
Seventh Circuit Court Of Appeals Rejects “integrated Systems” Doctrine In Determining Coverage For A Third-party Property Damage Claim In The Context Of Construction Defect Litigation
In Haley v. Kolbe Kolbe Millwork Co., 866 F.3d 824 (7th Cir. 2017) reh'g denied (Sept. 7, 2017) the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, applying Wisconsin law, found that a home has components. This case involved a putative class action against the insureds' defective...
Federal District Court Predicts That The Iowa Supreme Court Will Apply Pro-rata Allocation To Construction Defect Claims
In Pella Corp. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 244 F.Supp.3d 931 (S.D. Iowa 2017) the District Court held that a CGL policy's non-cumulation clause did not require an "all sums" allocation approach where the insured could recover its entire indemnity obligation from a...
Nebraska Statute Prohibiting Arbitration Of Insurance-related Claims Was Reversed Preempted By The Federal Arbitration Act Under The Mccarren-ferguson Act
The California Court of Appeals in Citizens of Humanity v. Applied Underwriters, Inc., 17 Cal.App. 5th 806 (2nd Dist. 2017), the court found that Nebraska's Insurance Anti-Arbitration statute had been reverse pre-empted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).Nebraska's...
Georgia Court Of Appeals Finds Lead-based Paint Injuries Subject To Insurance Policy’s Insurance Exclusion
In Brownlee v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 456 Md. 579, 175 A.3d 697 (2017), the Maryland Court of Appeals, interpreting Georgia law, held that a policy's pollution exclusion applied to bodily injuries resulting from the ingestion of lead-based paint. The Court...
On the Horns of a Dilemma, What is an Excess Insurer to do?
Imagine this: an underlying tort lawsuit is being defended by the primary insurer. While the defense is underway, an opportunity arises in which the insured and the primary insurer agree that the proposed settlement of the covered claim should be accepted. However,...