In Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Shilling, 2020 WL 1910499 (Md. 4/20/20), the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the intermediate appellate court finding that the statute of limitations began to run on UIM claims when the insurance company denied an insured’s...
Insurance Law
NO RELEASE?
Upon a certified question, the Montana Supreme Court recently found that when liability for an automobile accident is reasonably clear and it is also reasonably clear that the amount of the loss exceeded the available policy limits, that the insurance company could...
10th CIRCUIT FINDS THAT THE INSURANCE COMPANY IS NOT VICARIOUSLY LIABLE FOR THE NEGLIGENCE OF HIRED DEFENSE COUNSEL
In Progressive Northwestern Ins. Co. v. Gant, 957 F.3d 1144 (10th Cir. 2020) (interpreting Kansas law), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that liability insurance companies had a duty to exercise reasonable care in the hiring of competent defense counsel...
INSURER NOT OBLIGATED TO INVESTIGATE THE AVAILABILITY OF INSURANCE COVERAGE TO SETTLE A CLAIM
In Progressive Northwestern Ins. Co. v. Gant, 957 F.3d 1144 (10th Cir. 2020) (interpreting Kansas law), the 10th Circuit held that a liability insurance company is not obligated to investigate the availability of other insurance to fund a settlement for excess...
MINNESOTA COURT OF APPEALS FINDS THAT INSUREDS ARE REQUIRED TO ALLOCATE SETTLEMENTS BETWEEN COVERED AND NONCOVERED CLAIMS
Recently, the Court of Appeals in King's Cove Marina, LLC v. Lambert Commercial Constr. LLC, 937 N.W.2d 458 (Minn. Ct. App. 2019), review granted (Feb. 26, 2020) held that when an insured and a claimant enter into a Miller-Shugart agreement, the parties must allocate...
CHILD ABUSE IN SCHOOL BUS DOES NOT GIVE RISE TO UM CLAIM
Recently the Supreme Court of Virginia in Corriveau v. State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co., 836 S.E.2d 694 (Va. 2019) ruled that child abuse inflicted by a bus driver and a bus driver's aide were not covered by the victim's uninsured motorist coverage. The Court...
PROPERTY INSURERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DEPRECIATE LABOR COSTS WHEN CALCULATING ACTUAL CASH VALUE IN MISSISSIPPI
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Mitchell v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co., 954 F.3d 700 (5th Cir. 2020), applying Mississippi law, held that State Farm's definition of actual cash value was ambiguous and therefore had to be interpreted in the...
MARYLAND ADOPTS PRO-RATA ALLOCATION ON A TIME ON RISK BASIS
In Rossello v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co., 468 Md. 92, 226 A.3d 444 (2020), the Maryland Supreme Court held that Maryland law did not permit "all sums" allocation of liability policies in continuous and progressive injury cases. The Court held that for continuous and...
CLAIM HANDLERS OWE DIRECT DUTY UNDER TEXAS LAW TO THE INSURER
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...
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...
