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...
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),...
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...
Recently the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Singleton v. Elephant Insurance Co., 953 F.3d 334 (5th Cir. 2020), held that an insurance policy provision which limited the insurer's liability for a totaled car to "actual cash value" of the car at the time of the...
In RSUI Indemnity Co. v. New Horizon Kids Quest, Inc., 933 F.3d 960 (8th Cir. 2019), applying Minnesota law, the 8th Circuit held that when an excess insurer had not participated in the insured's defense, that insurer was allowed the opportunity to allocate the jury's...
In Strauss v. Premera Blue Cross, 449 P.3d 640 (Wash. 2019), the Washington Supreme Court considered the concept of medical necessity.In Strauss, the insured plaintiff was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The insured's doctor recommended proton beam therapy rather than...
Under Pennsylvania law, MVFRL §1739(c), insurance companies are required to offer insureds the option to waive stacked UIM coverage at the time of purchase. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held recently that under Pennsylvania's Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility...
A typical criminal act exclusion states that there is no coverage for bodily injury or property damage arising out of any criminal act. Typically the exclusion applies regardless of whether the insured is actually charged with or convicted of a crime. In Country...
In a strained decision, the Alaska Supreme Court in Attorneys Liability Protection Society, Inc. v. Ingaldson Fitzgerald, P.C., 370 P.3d 1101 (2016), answered certified questions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals finding that Alaska's statute regarding...
The Washington Court of Appeals recently found (Arden v. Forsberg & Umlauf, P.S., 193 Wash.App. 731, 373 P.3d 320 (2016)), on first impression, that insurer retained attorneys (defense attorneys) were not automatically prohibited from representing insureds merely...