Insurance Law

The Kentucky Supreme Court, on first impression, addressed a property exclusion involving damage intentionally caused by an insured whose mental capacity was in question.  See Foreman v. Auto Club Property-Casualty Insurance Co., 617 S.W.3d 345 (Ky. 2021). The...

In Savoie v. Enco Insulations, Inc., 322 S.3d 1264 (La. App. 1st Cir. 4/9/21), the Court found that a CGL policy issued to an engineering corporation excluded coverage for executive officers for claims arising from a former employee’s lung cancer that developed after...

In response to a certified question from a federal district court, the South Carolina Supreme Court held in Butler v. Travelers Home & Marine Insurance Co., 858 S.E.2d 407 (S.C. 2021) that insurance companies were entitled to include depreciation of embedded labor...

Recently, the Court in Husel v. Trinity Health Corp., 2020 WL 95797 (E.D. Mich. 1/8/20), unpublished Case No. 19-CV-12478 *Affirmed by Sixth Circuit, 832 Fed. Appx. 996 (Jan. 6, 2021) held that a medical malpractice policy did not require the insurer to provide a paid...

Recently, the Iowa Supreme Court held that a repair contractor who was acting as an unlicensed public adjuster was barred from obtaining compensation from the homeowner’s property insurer. In 33 Carpenters Construction, Inc. v. State Farm Life and Casualty, 939 N.W.2d...

In Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. v. Burlington Insurance Co., 951 F.3d 1199 (10th Cir. 2020), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, applying Wyoming law, held that a fire at a fracking wellsite did not arise from an employee’s auto-related conduct. In this case, Jason...

Under California Civil Code §2860 (hereafter, “§2860”), insureds have a right to obtain independent counsel at the insurer’s expense whenever there are competing interests that create an ethical conflict for the insurer-appointed counsel.  Since enactment, the...

Published in Claim Journal August 12, 2022.  Republished with permission Courts are split on the question of whether it is permissible to depreciate labor costs when determining actual cash value (“ACV”).  The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in Sproull v. State Farm...

The Nevada Supreme Court held in Nautilus Insurance Co. v. Access Medical, LLC, 482 P.3d 683 (Nev. 2021), on first impression, that the liability insurer could obtain recoupment of defense costs from its insured after establishing that no duty to defend existed.  The...

In AKC, Inc. v. United Specialty Insurance Co., 2021-Ohio-3540, ___N.E.3d ___, 2021 WL 4557194 (Ohio 10/6/21), the insured argued that a standard policy exclusion for sewer back-ups and overflows was ambiguous because the exclusion did not contain the specific word...