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September 29, 2026
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of an appeals panel’s reversal of a lower court’s $345 million judgment against insurers in a breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for a school insured for a consent judgment that was awarded against the insured and its teacher who was accused of sexually abusing 20 students between 1974 and 1994.
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September 29, 2026
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on Sept. 28 denied cross-motions for partial summary judgment on an assignee’s breach of contract counterclaim in a senior care liability insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaration that it has no further duty to defend its insured against an underlying negligence and abuse action or indemnify the insured for the $4.2 million underlying settlement agreement, holding that summary judgment for either party is precluded by a single factual issue regarding whether the insurer was prejudiced by the insured’s decision to enter the underlying settlement agreement.
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September 29, 2026
EL PASO, Texas — A commercial general liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment must be denied because the insurer failed to attach the correct insurance policy to its motion and because the insurer’s hostile fire exception to the pollution exclusion may operate to provide coverage for an underlying carbon monoxide poisoning suit filed against the insureds, the underlying plaintiff says in a Sept. 28 response to the insurer’s motion.
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September 29, 2026
SEATTLE — Commercial and umbrella liability insurers filed a declaratory judgment complaint in a Washington federal court, alleging they have no duty to defend or indemnify their mutual insured against an underlying class action lawsuit alleging that it violated the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) by repeatedly sending emails to consumers with false or misleading end dates of promotional sales for its products in the subject line.
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September 28, 2026
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Finding there is no controlling precedent from the South Carolina Supreme Court as to the meaning of “damages because of bodily injury” in the context of a coverage dispute for more than 350 lawsuits seeking damages that were allegedly caused by the distribution of opioids in a manner that caused addiction, injury and death, a federal judge in South Carolina denied cross-motions for summary judgment filed by a drug distributor insured and its insurers and directed the parties to confer on a proposed question or questions to certify to the state’s high court.
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September 28, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois judge dismissed without prejudice claims for breach of contract and vexatious and unreasonable delay under Illinois Insurance Code Section 155 against an insurance firm but allowed these claims to proceed against an insurance producer in an insured’s lawsuit seeking $4.89 million in cyber insurance coverage for a 2023 ransomware attack, holding that the claims must be dismissed against the firm because the policy is ambiguous by failing to indicate whether the firm or producer will pay the claim.
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September 25, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A trustee for a bankruptcy trust on Sept. 24 filed a notice of appeal of a Pennsylvania federal judge’s grant of excess insurers’ motion for summary judgment on bellwether insurance coverage issues as applied to a bankrupt pharmaceutical company insured’s liability for injury claims related to transvaginal surgical mesh products.
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September 25, 2026
ATLANTA — An Atlanta property owner and a commercial general liability insurer reported to a Georgia federal court that they participated in mediation but were unable to resolve the property owner’s breach of contract and declaratory relief lawsuit alleging the insurer has a duty to pay more than $250,000 in attorney fees the insured has incurred in defending against an underlying personal injury lawsuit arising from a shooting that occurred during the filming of a music video.
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September 24, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted insureds’ motion to stay insurers’ lawsuit seeking a declaration that they have no duty to defend or indemnify the insureds for underlying litigation alleging that their YouTube platform caused harm to minors, holding that a parallel California coverage suit was filed 16 days before the present lawsuit and, therefore, is entitled to deference under Delaware law.
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September 23, 2026
DURHAM, N.C. — Less than three weeks after a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of four Durham businesses on their claims for declaratory judgment, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair and deceptive trade practices in their lawsuit seeking coverage for their business interruption losses arising from the lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the insureds and their mutual commercial property insurer filed a joint notice stating that they have reached a settlement in principle and seeking a stay of all case deadlines and adjournment of the Sept. 24 pretrial conference.
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September 23, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking directors and officers liability coverage for an underlying shareholder derivative action, agreeing with the lower court that the policy’s Ownership Percentage Exclusion (OPE) unambiguously bars coverage.
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September 23, 2026
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.— A Florida appeals panel reversed a lower court’s dismissal of an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit against an insurer based on the forum-selection provision in marine insurance policies, holding that the forum-selection provision at issue is permissive and not mandatory and the lower court erred in dismissing the action based solely on that provision.
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September 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Insurers waived their right to respond to a doctor’s petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling affirming as modified a lower court’s dismissal of the doctor’s breach of contract seeking business interruption and umbrella coverage for her losses arising from discovery of hidden cameras at her dermatology office; the doctor is asking to court to address what defines “direct physical loss” in electronic security context.
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September 23, 2026
TACOMA, Wash. — A commercial general liability insurer filed suit in a Washington federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it owes no coverage for an underlying lawsuit alleging that a nicotine vaporizer that was distributed by the insured exploded in a customer’s pants pocket and caused severe burn injuries, asserting that coverage is barred by the policy exclusion for “Tobacco, Nicotine Or Nicotine Replacement Products” and endorsement for “Limitation of Coverage to Designated Premises, Project or Operation.”
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September 22, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An assignee notified a California federal court that he is appealing the court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a business and management liability insurer on his claims for breach of contract, bad faith and punitive damages in a directors and officers liability coverage dispute over an underlying lawsuit alleging breaches of fiduciary duties against the insured’s directors.
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September 21, 2026
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A federal judge in Illinois denied a lawyers professional liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying legal malpractice claim brought against its attorney insured, holding that the facts do not clearly support the insurer’s argument that the policy’s prior knowledge exclusion bars coverage.
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September 21, 2026
HONOLULU — Two insurers notified a federal court in Hawaii that they are appealing the court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of a petroleum company insured in a coverage dispute over claims that the insured is responsible for the damaging effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and its failure to disclose or warn of the hazards of using the fossil fuel products that it sold into the stream of commerce.
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September 18, 2026
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge on Sept. 17 ruled that experts in an insurance coverage dispute cannot “offer testimony that interprets the policies or opines on the parties’ state of mind,” partially granting and partially denying a pair of motions to exclude.
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September 18, 2026
FLINT, Mich. — Insurers ask a Michigan federal court to grant their motion for summary judgment in a coverage dispute arising from the death of a minor who was receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the insured’s facility, asserting that every underlying claim against the insured is based upon professional services arising from the operation and use of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and that state and federal courts applying both Michigan and other state laws have broadly enforced “professional services” exclusions in incidents similar to those asserted in the underlying complaint against the insured and its employees.
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September 18, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — The day after parties filed a stipulation of dismissal, a Delaware judge dismissed with prejudice the last remaining insurer in a financial services company insured’s lawsuit seeking directors and officers coverage for its defense costs associated with an underlying arbitration arising from claims that it recruited a broker-dealer’s employees to steal trade secret software code and proprietary information.
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September 17, 2026
CINCINNATI— The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling on summary judgment that insurers have no duty to indemnify its insured in an underlying lawsuit alleging the wrongful death of a minor while he was a resident of a behavioral care center that was managed by the insured, holding that the restraint that the insured’s employees used on the minor was a “professional service” that was excluded from coverage and relieved the insurers of their duty to indemnify.
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September 16, 2026
PASADENA, Calif.— The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s breach of contract, bad faith, unfair competition and declaratory relief lawsuit, holding that the insurer has no duty to defend against an underlying negligence lawsuit arising from sexual assault and harassment because it was brought after the policy’s coverage and extended reporting periods expired.
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September 16, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California state judge granted summary judgment to a school district risk pool and rejected a reinsurer’s attempt to avoid coverage liability for sexual abuse that occurred outside an agreed coverage period, holding that the governing agreements treat multiple victims of the same perpetrator as part of a single “‘occurrence’” arising at the time of the first abuse, despite the reinsurer’s arguments that each victim constituted a separate “‘occurrence’” and that the later abuse fell outside the policy period.
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September 15, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A majority of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 14 that a television production company insured forfeited its argument that an insurance policy’s “reality show” exclusion is ambiguous and, therefore, must be construed in its favor, affirming a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute arising from underlying injury claims brought against the insured by participants of the reality television show “My 600-lb Life.”
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September 14, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 11 affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling that insurers have no duty to defend against underlying lawsuits alleging the insureds violated the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, holding that the underlying actions assert that the insureds “intentionally made payments” to foreign terrorist organizations and, as a result, do not allege an occurrence under the policies.