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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • February 21, 2025

    Status Report Filed In 1st Circuit By Puerto Rico Insurance Commissioner

    BOSTON — In status report filed in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Puerto Rico insurance commissioner and the auxiliary rehabilitator of a health insurer informed the court that a court hearing a case under Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act is currently considering an objection filed by Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board opposing requests by two plaintiffs in related cases before a Puerto Rico federal court asking the Title III court to allow their cases to proceed to trial.

  • February 20, 2025

    Consolidation Bid Disputed In Case That Arose From Fronting Arrangement Deal

    NEW ORLEANS — Parties in a case arising from a fronting arrangement are disputing a motion to consolidate, with a managing general agent (MGA) arguing in a reply brief that the Louisiana federal court should focus on “the integrated nature of the transactions and agreements at issue” and that consolidation would “promote judicial economy.”

  • February 20, 2025

    Ex-CEO’s Legal Bills Case Draws Fiduciary Breach, Concealment Counterclaims

    DALLAS — Filing counterclaims against its former CEO in Texas federal court, a delisted insurer that says its shares are now “essentially worthless” alleges that his purported “scheme to doctor the claims reserves in the commercial auto line was a significant factor in” losses connected to termination of a loss portfolio transfer (LPT) reinsurance contract.

  • February 19, 2025

    Media Tech Insurer, Financial Services Firm Settle Data Breach Coverage Dispute

    SEATTLE — A media tech insurer that filed suit and its financial services firm insured filed a notice in a Washington federal court indicating they have settled the insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify the insured for a bank’s indemnification demand for a data breach incident and a related subrogation lawsuit brought by the bank’s insurer.

  • February 18, 2025

    Excess Insurer Appeals Ruling In BIPA Violation Coverage Dispute

    CHICAGO — An excess insurer filed a notice indicating that it is appealing an Illinois federal court’s ruling granting in part and denying in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a franchisee of the Burger King chain’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking a declaration that the insurer has a duty to defend against an underlying putative class lawsuit alleging that the insured violated the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA).

  • February 18, 2025

    Oral Arguments Set In Dispute Over Applicability Of Radioactive Materials Exclusion

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on April 10 in an insured’s appeal of a district court’s ruling that no coverage is owed by insurers pursuant to the policies’ radioactive materials exclusion for an underlying suit seeking damages for bodily injuries caused by exposure to electromagnetic (EMF) radiation from the insured’s electric transformers.

  • February 18, 2025

    Defective Workmanship Claims Do Not Constitute Occurrence, Excess Insurer Argues

    PHOENIX — An excess commercial insurer filed a declaratory judgment lawsuit in an Arizona federal court arguing that underlying defective workmanship allegations “standing alone do not constitute an ‘occurrence’” and repair of the purported defective workmanship or product fail to constitute “property damage” to trigger coverage, seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify its subcontractor insured and an underlying $6 million stipulated judgment cannot be enforced against it.

  • February 18, 2025

    Class Action Alleges Allstate Collected, Sold Data Without Plaintiffs’ Consent

    CHICAGO — A class action complaint filed in Illinois federal court alleges that The Allstate Corp. and its subsidiaries collected and sold the plaintiffs’ personal data and “‘trillions of miles’ worth of ‘driving behavior’” data without their consent.

  • February 13, 2025

    Reinsurer, General Agent Dispute Reporting Requirements In Breach Of Contract Suit

    FORT WORTH, Texas — Whether a general agent had to report certain developments to a reinsurer or just to the insurer in a dispute that resulted in a multimillion-dollar personal injury judgment is the focus of partial summary judgment briefing in the reinsurer’s breach of contract suit against the general agent in Texas federal court.

  • February 12, 2025

    Insurer Says No Coverage Owed To Flint, Mich., Hospital Over Water Crisis Claims

    DETROIT — An insurance company on Feb. 11 sued McLaren Health Care Corp. in Michigan federal court arguing that it has no duty to indemnify McLaren in connection with a $641 million settlement that was reached in the litigation over the lead-contaminated water claims in the city of Flint, Mich., where McLaren runs a hospital in which patients were injured during the Flint water crisis.  The insurer says it has no duty to indemnify McLaren and argues that it has “no liability of any kind” under the policy it issued.

  • February 12, 2025

    Government: Cases In ACA Reinsurance Dispute Were Properly Ruled Untimely

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing that U.S. Supreme Court precedents foreclose equitable tolling of the statute of limitations in Tucker Act class actions, the U.S. government urged the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling that group health plans’ consolidated cases challenging exactions made under the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) were untimely.

  • February 12, 2025

    Diocese Of Trenton Seeks Coverage For ‘Onslaught’ Of Child Sexual Abuse Claims

    TRENTON, N.J. — The Diocese of Trenton filed a declaratory judgment and breach of contract lawsuit in a New Jersey federal court seeking coverage for hundreds of underlying claims brought

  • February 11, 2025

    Insurer Seeks To Void Policy Over Prior Policy Cancellation Misrepresentation

    CHICAGO — An Arizona-based insurer sued its insured gym operator seeking to rescind a commercial lines policy based on the insured’s purported misrepresentations in the policy application by not providing information about a lapse in coverage, a nonrenewal due to a history of loss and a cancellation for nonpayment, arguing that the insurer would have issued the policy under different conditions, if at all, if the insured had provided accurate information.

  • February 11, 2025

    Insurer Says No Coverage Due For Underlying Toxic Exposure Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A commercial general liability insurer filed suit in California federal court, seeking a declaration that no coverage is owed for an underlying suit alleging that exposure to the insured’s hair styling straightening products caused individuals to be diagnosed with cancer and leukemia because the insured failed to provide timely notice of the suit and had knowledge before the issuance of the policy that its products were unsafe.

  • February 11, 2025

    Insurer Maintains No Coverage Owed For Remediation Costs

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — No coverage is owed for investigation and remediation costs as a result of contamination discovered at and near the site of an insured dry cleaning business because no suit has been filed against the insured and because the policy pollution exclusion bars coverage, an insurer says in its reply in support of its motion for summary judgment filed in New Mexico federal court.

  • February 11, 2025

    Insurer Amends Complaint Against Surgeon In Fraud Suit Alleging ‘False Treatment’

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A Vermont-based insurer filed an amended complaint in a New York federal court in its fraud suit against a New York-based spinal surgeon, alleging that he participated in a “scheme” to defraud the insurer by submitting claims for reimbursement regarding “false treatment” and surgeries for injuries purportedly unrelated to incidents covered under the insurer’s policies.

  • February 10, 2025

    Appellant Asks 8th Circuit To Review No Coverage Ruling For Abuse-Of-Process Claim

    MINNEAPOLIS — A company filed a notice indicating that it is asking the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review a Minnesota federal court’s grant of a commercial general liability insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its lawsuit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against the appellant’s underlying abuse-of-process claim.

  • February 07, 2025

    Jurisdiction Issue Triggers Amended Complaint In Row Involving Legionnaires’

    DETROIT — At the direction of a Michigan federal judge who said the initial pleading didn’t adequately show diversity of citizenship, a captive insurer filed an amended complaint over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease, alleging breach of a reinsurance agreement and seeking declaratory judgment.

  • February 07, 2025

    Corporate Attorney Alleges Disability Insurer Failed To Conduct Full, Fair Review

    LOS ANGELES — A disability insurer failed to conduct a full and fair review of a corporate attorney’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits claim because the insurer failed to address how the attorney’s physical disabilities contributed to her inability to perform her duties as a corporate attorney, the plan participant says in a Feb. 6 complaint filed in California federal court.

  • February 05, 2025

    Oral Surgeon Says Disability Benefits Owed Based On Danger Of Contracting COVID-19

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should reverse a district court’s ruling in favor of a disability insurer because the lower court erred in failing to acknowledge that an oral surgeon’s return to work would endanger his life and health based on his risk of contracting COVID-19 and suffering complications from the virus based on comorbid conditions of asthma and hypertension, the surgeon says in his appellant reply brief.

  • February 05, 2025

    Insurers Withdraw Motion For Judgment On Pleadings In Maui Wildfire Coverage Suit

    MAUI, Hawaii — Insurers withdrew their motion for judgment on the pleadings in a Hawaii court in their insureds’ bad faith action alleging that the insurers’ subrogation lawsuit seeking to recover compensation for the payments that they made to victims of the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires is “unfair, inequitable, and unlawful” because they “seek to take money away from their premium-paying insureds who are the real victims of the Maui Wildfires without showing that these victims have been fully compensated.”

  • February 04, 2025

    Home Depot Asks 6th Circuit To Rehear No Coverage Ruling In Data Breach Dispute

    CINCINNATI — Home Depot filed a petition in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking a panel rehearing of a majority ruling that 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.

  • February 04, 2025

    Competing Motions Filed In Asbestos Coverage Suit On Effect Of Noncumulation Clause

    PITTSBURGH — An insured maintains in a motion for partial summary judgment filed in Pennsylvania federal court that a noncumulation clause included in one of its excess insurer’s policies should not be enforced because the policy was changed to conform with an underlying umbrella policy; however, the excess insurer says in its motion for partial summary judgment that the noncumulation clause must be enforced to reduce the limit of liability under the policy and the amount owed to the insured for asbestos liabilities.

  • February 04, 2025

    Insurer Says Order Of Default Warranted Against Insureds In Debris Disposal Suit

    ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — An insurer filed a motion for default in Illinois federal court, maintaining that the court should enter an order of default against its insureds for failing to respond to the insurer’s second amended complaint, which seeks a declaration that its policy’s asbestos exclusion and pollution exclusion bar coverage for the alleged improper disposal of construction debris by the insured.

  • February 03, 2025

    Insureds: Insurers ‘Flouted’ Order Compelling Discovery In Defects Coverage Suit

    NEWARK, N.J. — Insureds asked a New Jersey court to dismiss their insurers’ lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying construction defects lawsuit, arguing that the insurers “have refused to meaningfully participate in the discovery process, repeatedly ignored deadlines and discovery rules, flouted this Court’s Order compelling discovery, and otherwise delayed the progression of this litigation.”