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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • 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

    Disability Claimant To 7th Circuit: Lower Court Erred In Finding Burden Not Met

    CHICAGO — A district court erred in finding that a disability claimant failed to meet her burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that she remained disabled from working in a sedentary occupation as a result of symptoms related to fibromyalgia because the lower court ignored relevant precedent in finding that the claimant was no longer disabled, the claimant says in an appellant brief filed in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 21, 2025

    Condo Association Files Complaint, Says Hidden Damage Covered Under Policy

    SEATTLE — A property insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith when it denied a condominium association’s claim for hidden water damage because the hidden damage was caused by a covered cause of loss and is not excluded under the policies at issue, an insured contends in a complaint filed in Washington federal court.

  • January 21, 2025

    Building Owner Appeals Attorney Fee Award In Coverage Suit Over Structural Damage

    PHOENIX — A building owner insured filed a notice in an Arizona federal court indicating that it is appealing the court’s order awarding $198,234 in attorney fees to a commercial property insurer after granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment in the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for structural damage to its building.

  • January 17, 2025

    Declaratory Judgment Suit Focuses On Reinsurance, Legionnaires’ Disease Claims

    DETROIT — Alleging breach of a reinsurance agreement and seeking declaratory judgment, a captive insurer filed a lawsuit in Michigan federal court over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease.

  • 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

    Bid To Pursue Resolution With Vesttoo Affiliate In Israel Draws Opposition

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Israeli investors’ request for a Delaware federal bankruptcy court to grant relief from the injunction in the Chapter 11 liquidation of Vesttoo Ltd. and dozens of affiliates so they can pursue arbitration and/or liquidation proceedings in Israel has drawn objections that the investors argue should be rejected.

  • January 14, 2025

    Insureds Say Pollution Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage For Remediation Costs

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for investigation and remediation costs incurred by insureds as a result of contamination discovered at and near the site of an insured dry cleaning business because the pollution exclusion is ambiguous and must be construed in favor of coverage, the insureds maintain in response to an insurer’s motion for summary judgment filed in New Mexico federal court.

  • January 10, 2025

    Facing Insurer’s Opposition, Talc Supplier Seeks Extensions Of Exclusive Periods

    TRENTON, N.J. — Raw materials supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Presperse Corp. asked a New Jersey federal bankruptcy court to give it more time to file an amended plan of reorganization after the company’s lone insurer objected to the plan’s disclosure statement and disputed insurance coverage for asbestos personal injury claims.

  • January 10, 2025

    Disability Insurer Wrongfully Terminated Benefits, Woman With Long COVID Says

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A woman who was diagnosed with long COVID filed suit on Jan. 9 in California federal court against her disability insurer, alleging that the insurer wrongfully terminated her long-term disability (LTD) benefits after determining that she was able to perform the duties of her own occupation as the director of operations at a museum.

  • 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

    NFL Disability Plan Tells 11th Circuit District Court Ruling Must Be Affirmed

    ATLANTA — A district court’s ruling in favor of the National Football League’s disability plan must be affirmed because the former NFL player failed to exhaust all administrative remedies and failed to show that any exceptional circumstances excused the failure to exhaust all administrative remedies, the plan says in its appellee brief filed in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 08, 2025

    Biopharmaceutical Company, Insurer Stipulate To Dismiss D&O Coverage Dispute

    LOS ANGELES — After announcing that a settlement has been reached in principle, a biopharmaceutical company insured and its insurer filed a joint stipulation to dismiss a directors and officers liability coverage dispute arising from a lawsuit brought by the insured’s former employee.

  • January 07, 2025

    Building Owner, Contractor Say Rehearing En Banc Is Warranted In Collapse Suit

    CINCINNATI — A building owner and a contractor filed petitions for rehearing en banc in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, contending that rehearing en banc is warranted because the panel’s finding that coverage is owed only for a portion of a wall that collapsed in a building that was undergoing renovation is inconsistent with a prior Sixth Circuit opinion and other prevailing case law within the Sixth Circuit.

  • January 07, 2025

    Insurers Owe Coverage For Environmental Remediation Costs, Insureds Say

    LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Coverage is owed for environmental contamination remediation costs related to the release of a waste byproduct from a gas pipeline, insureds say in a breach of contract and bad faith complaint filed in New Mexico federal court against three of its environmental liability insurers.

  • January 06, 2025

    Freddie Mac, Insurer Reach Settlement In Directors And Officers Coverage Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) and Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London filed a notice in a District of Columbia federal court indicating that they have settled Freddie Mac’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking directors and officers liability coverage for underlying expenses it incurred on behalf of its directors, officers and employees who were subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission during an investigation and subsequent lawsuit.

  • January 02, 2025

    Intervention Sought Over Setoff Rights In Connecticut Rehabilitation Proceeding

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Policy owners’ setoff rights are the focus of an intervention motion that three investment managers filed in Connecticut state court regarding the rehabilitation of life insurer PHL Variable Insurance Co. and the subsidiaries that reinsure its liabilities.

  • December 31, 2024

    IRS Asks 5th Circuit To Affirm Tax Court Ruling In Row Over Purported Microcaptives

    NEW ORLEANS — Urging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a ruling that certain purported microcaptive insurance arrangements were not entitled to federal tax benefits, the U.S. commissioner of Internal Revenue argues in part that the “Taxpayer can hardly claim reversible error or fault the Tax Court for applying a legal framework that Taxpayer himself advocated.”

  • December 24, 2024

    Tax Court Briefing On Economic Substance Doctrine Continues In Microcaptive Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In their latest filings in a U.S. Tax Court dispute over the “economic substance doctrine” in consolidated cases involving purported microcaptive insurance companies, the commissioner of Internal Revenue argues that a “threshold” determination of relevance is not required and the petitioners contend that the bulk of the amicus curiae briefs support their contrary position, among other things.

  • December 19, 2024

    5th Circuit Appeal Seeks Revival Of Untimely Crop Insurance Case

    NEW ORLEANS — Briefing has concluded in an appeal concerning federally reinsured crop insurance, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), statutes of limitations, tolling and estoppel, and the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has tentatively calendared oral argument for the week of Feb. 3.

  • December 19, 2024

    Redacted Complaint Is Filed In Indemnification Row Over Clash Reinsurance

    NEW YORK — A reinsurer that seeks a declaration that it doesn’t have a duty to indemnify an insurer that settled claims stemming from alleged sexual abuse of female athletes by Larry Nassar and others has filed a redacted complaint in New York federal court.

  • December 18, 2024

    Tax Court Ruling In Row Over Purported Microcaptive Is Appealed To 10th Circuit

    DENVER — For at least the second time this year, plaintiffs who unsuccessfully sued the commissioner of Internal Revenue in U.S. Tax Court over purported microcaptive insurance have filed an appeal; this one is in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • December 18, 2024

    2 Investors Want To Pursue Resolution With Vesttoo Affiliate In Israel

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Two Israeli investors have asked a Delaware federal bankruptcy court for relief from the injunction in the Chapter 11 liquidation of Vesttoo Ltd. and its dozens of affiliates so they can pursue arbitration and/or liquidation proceedings in Israel.

  • December 13, 2024

    Hawaii Supreme Court Considers Subrogation Issues For Wildfire Settlement

    HONOLULU — 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 is the focus of three reserved questions the Hawaii Supreme Court is considering, with some recent filings involving how reinsurance could be affected.

  • December 12, 2024

    Real Estate Law Firm, Cyber Security Insurer Settle Coverage Dispute

    ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A real estate law firm, its insurer and a third-party administrator filed a joint stipulation asking a North Carolina federal court to dismiss with prejudice the firm’s lawsuit seeking coverage under a cybersecurity policy for gross negligence and obstruction of justice cross-claims arising from a “cyber incident” in 2021 that resulted in the misdirection of funds.