In Wenk v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. and HJ Enterprises, Inc., 242 A.3d 309 (2020 Pa. Super. 26), the Court rejected plaintiff’s claim for institutional bad faith under Pennsylvania’s bad faith statute, 42 Pa. C.S. §8731. Under Pennsylvania’s bad faith statute...
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...
Attorney errors and omissions policies universally contain a prior knowledge clause which precludes coverage for claims made during the policy period if, before the inception of the policy, the attorney had knowledge of the “actual alleged negligent act, error, or...
Recently, the South Carolina Supreme Court held that a “step-down” clause within an automobile liability policy was void. In Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Walls, _____ S.E.2d _____, 2021 WL 908511 (S.C. 2021) the insured was in the process of committing a...
In Allstate Insurance Co. v. Irwin, _____ S.W.3d _____, 64 Texas Sup. Court Justice 1058, 2021 WL 2021446 (Texas, 5/21/21), the Texas Supreme Court affirmed an award entered in a declaratory judgment action, finding that entitlement to UIM benefits could be...
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...
In BonBeck Parker, LLC v. Travelers Indemnity Co. of America, 14 F.4th 1169 (10th Circ. 2021) the Court held that the Travelers policy permitted either party to request an appraisal on “the amount of loss,” which was a phrase with an ordinary meaning in the insurance...