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Mealey's Emerging Insurance Disputes

  • January 21, 2025

    Insurers Appeal Ruling In D&O Coverage Dispute With Under Armour

    BALTIMORE — Insurers filed a notice indicating that they are asking the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review a Maryland federal court’s grant of Under Armour Inc.’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its directors and officers liability insurers’ lawsuit seeking a declaration that they owe no coverage for underlying investigations brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, shareholder demand letters and a securities class action.

  • January 21, 2025

    Federal Judge: No Coverage Owed For Fire Damage To Insured’s Cannabis Crops

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut on Jan. 21 entered judgment in favor of an insurer after granting its motion for summary judgment in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for the insured’s claim for losses arising from an exploding lamp that caused fire damage to 998 marijuana plants, concluding that there is no coverage owed because the insured’s loss did not result from a suspension of its operations.

  • January 21, 2025

    Judge: Injuries Not Caused By ‘Occurrence,’ No Homeowners Insurance Coverage Owed

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying assault and battery action against its insured, concluding that the insurer has no duty to defend and indemnity its insured because the underlying complaint alleges intentional and not accidental conduct.

  • January 21, 2025

    10th Circuit Tosses Appeal Of Tax Court Ruling On Purported Microcaptive

    DENVER — In an unpublished order citing the lack of a “final decision to review,” a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed an appeal filed by appellants who unsuccessfully sued the commissioner of Internal Revenue in U.S. Tax Court over purported microcaptive insurance.

  • January 21, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Class Action Alleging Insurer Violated Insureds’ Right To Privacy

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted an insurer and an association of insurance companies’ motions to dismiss a putative class action alleging that they retained and disclosed the insureds’ protected health information in violation of their right to privacy pursuant to Illinois state law, finding the negligence and invasion of privacy claims barred by the immunity provision in the Illinois Insurance Code.

  • January 21, 2025

    Excess Insurers Dismissed From Suit Over Sexual Abuse Claims Against Foster Home

    TACOMA, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington dismissed two excess insurers from assignees’ declaratory judgment, breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying settlement of six sexual abuse lawsuits brought against a foster home insured, finding that at the present time there is no “substantial, reasonable, and/or practical likelihood that the dispute will trigger the excess policies” and the claims are not justiciable.

  • January 17, 2025

    Investment Adviser Sues Insurers For Breach Of Contract In Delaware Court

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An investment adviser insured sued its investment management liability insurers for breach of contract in a Delaware court, seeking a declaration that the insurers have a duty to advance defense costs and indemnify it against underlying claims for unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

  • January 17, 2025

    Argument Set For Hawaii Supreme Court Case On Wildfire Settlement Subrogation

    HONOLULU — An amicus curiae group called the “Consolidated Class Plaintiffs” will take part in Feb. 6 oral argument after the Hawaii Supreme Court expanded the time allotted in the case concerning reserved questions on how the subrogation rights of property and casualty insurance carriers bear on a proposed global settlement of claims related to the August 2023 Maui wildfires; additionally, a pending opposed motion seeks to stay a lower court’s allocation proceeding.

  • January 17, 2025

    Panel Affirms Ruling In Insurers’ Indemnification Dispute Over $1M Appeal Bond

    RICHMOND, Va. —The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a plaintiff insurer alleging a defendant insurer breached their indemnity agreement for a $1 million appeal bond, rejecting the defendant insurer’s argument that it has no duty to indemnify under the equitable estoppel theory.

  • January 16, 2025

    N.J. High Court Decision Is Cited In Discovery Ruling On Reinsurance Info

    TRENTON, N.J. — Declining to compel production of information concerning a reinsurance policy, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge concluded that Statewide Ins. Fund v. Star Ins. Co. and the state statute that authorized a joint insurance fund (JIF) rendered the discovery requests at issue “not relevant and not proportional to the needs of the case.”

  • January 16, 2025

    Discovery Referee Rules On Motions To Compel In Coverage Suit Over Opioid Epidemic

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A discovery referee granted in part insureds’ and insurers’ motions to compel discovery in a coverage dispute arising from the opioid epidemic brought in a North Carolina court.

  • January 15, 2025

    Texas Sues Allstate For Collecting, Selling ‘Trillions Of Miles’ Of Driving Data

    CONROE, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a petition in Texas state court against The Allstate Corp., accusing the “insurance giant” of secretly collecting the driving behavior of more than 45 million Americans and selling the data to third parties in violation of the state’s data privacy and insurance laws.

  • January 15, 2025

    Set-Off Provision In Insured’s $1M Settlement Does Not Offset Judgment, Panel Affirms

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 14 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of hospital in a professional liability insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that an underlying $1 million settlement between the hospital and its software consulting company insured offsets a $750,000 judgment that was entered against its insured in the underlying lawsuit, finding that the underlying judgment creates a new liability for which the hospital can seek additional recovery.

  • January 15, 2025

    Connecticut Judge Stays Suit Seeking Coverage For $13.4M Wrongful Death Judgment

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut judge denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying $13,364,383 wrongful death judgment awarded against its insured but granted the insurer’s alternative motion to stay the coverage suit pending the insured’s appeal of the underlying jury verdict.

  • January 15, 2025

    Final Approval Given To $2 Million Insurance-Funded Settlement Of Data Breach Suit

    PORTLAND, Ore. — Five months after preliminarily approving a $2 million settlement of a class action over a marketing execution firm’s 2022 data breach, an Oregon federal judge granted final approval, deeming the approval “fair, reasonable, and adequate” and in accord with the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

  • January 14, 2025

    Exclusion Bars Coverage For Home Depot’s Data Breach Loss, 6th Circuit Majority Affirms

    CINCINNATI — A majority of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 13 affirmed an Ohio federal court’s finding that a commercial general liability insurance policy’s electronic data exclusion bars coverage for Home Depot’s losses stemming from a 2014 data breach, rejecting Home Depot’s contention that the lower court “wrongly expanded the narrow electronic-data exclusion beyond its natural meaning, based on assumed facts outside the record.”

  • January 13, 2025

    Judge Tosses D&O Insurer’s Suit Disputing Coverage For Fraudulent Inducement Claim

    CHICAGO — Three days after an insurer filed a notice seeking dismissal without prejudice of its lawsuit disputing coverage for underlying allegations that a seller and its venture capital sponsor defrauded buyers into purchasing the company SwervePay LLC, a federal judge in Illinois on Jan. 13 dismissed the action.

  • January 13, 2025

    Judge Amends Summary Judgment Order Over Insurer’s Liability Under Lost Policy

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge amended his previous order denying an insurer’s motion for summary judgment on a suit brought against it for breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by the successor-in-interest to a school that is being sued for a 1976 sexual assault of a student by a teacher, writing that the order conflated which policy was lost and which one the insurer conceded issuing.

  • January 13, 2025

    Assignee’s Suit Against Insurance Agency Time-Barred, Pennsylvania Court Affirms

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania court on Jan. 10 affirmed a lower court’s grant of an insurance agency’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in the insured’s assignee’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying wrongful death settlement, finding that the suit is barred by the statute of limitations.

  • January 13, 2025

    Bid For Review Of 9th Circuit Crop Insurance Ruling Under Loper Bright Fails

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Jan. 13 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a certiorari petition in which a farm argued that Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo should have prevented the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals from deferring to a regulatory interpretation of the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) in a crop insurance case.

  • January 10, 2025

    Hospital, Insurer Announce Settlement Of Coronavirus Coverage Suit In Federal Court

    BOSTON — A hospital insured and its commercial property insurer tell a Massachusetts federal court in a Jan. 9 joint motion that they have reached a settlement in principle of the insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • January 09, 2025

    Judgment Issued For Oil Company In Dispute Over Hurricane-Damaged Oil Barge

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge on Jan. 8 granted in part summary judgment to a gas and oil exploration company in its breach of contract suit against its insurer for failure to cover costs for recovering an oil barge damaged and set adrift during Hurricane Ida, finding that because there is no dispute that removal of the barge was required under law, the protection and indemnity (P&I) policy applies.

  • January 09, 2025

    N.Y. Appeals Court Affirms Arbitration Award In Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that denied an insurer’s request to disqualify a former New York Supreme Court justice as an umpire in an arbitration of a COVID-19 coverage dispute and concluded that the lower court properly determined the insured failed to demonstrate that the arbitration award should be vacated.

  • January 09, 2025

    N.Y. Appeals Court Reinstates Complaint Against 1 Insurer In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court concluded that Bowlero Corp. has stated a cause of action against one of its insurers because its complaint sufficiently asserts that a policy’s special time element coverage extension was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the additional pathogenic materials policy exclusion does not apply, unanimously modifying the lower court’s ruling, reinstating the insured’s complaint against the one insurer and affirming the remainder of the lower court’s decision.

  • January 08, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Reconsider Dismissal Of Philadelphia Eagles’ Coverage Dispute

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge denied the owner and operator of the Philadelphia Eagles football organization’s motion to reconsider the dismissal of its action seeking a declaration as to coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, rejecting the insured’s contention that the present lawsuit “is unlike any other that already has been decided and warrants proceeding past a motion to dismiss.”