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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • November 21, 2024

    Radioactive Materials Exclusion Clearly Bars Coverage, Insurers Maintain

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should affirm a district court’s finding 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 because the radioactive materials exclusion clearly bars coverage, the insurers say in their Nov. 20 appellee brief.

  • November 20, 2024

    Trump Corp. Sues Employment Practices Liability Insurer For Breach Of Contract

    NEW YORK — The Trump Corp. sued it employment practices liability insurer in a New York federal court for breach of contract and seeks a declaration that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against a terminated employee’s lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime, age discrimination and breach of contract.

  • November 20, 2024

    Insured Seeks Coverage For Disparagement Suit Brought By Maker Of COVID Test

    PHILADELPHIA — An insured sued its commercial umbrella insurer in a Pennsylvania federal court seeking personal and advertising coverage for an underlying disparagement lawsuit alleging that it sent 19,000 letters to Chester County residents asserting that the COVID-19 test kits they used were unreliable.

  • November 20, 2024

    Insurers: Auto Makers Failed To Recall Vehicles With Potential Deadly Defects

    SANTA ANA, Calif.— Automobile and property insurers filed a subrogation lawsuit on behalf of their insureds against automotive manufacturers, telling a California court that the defendants  “purposefully and knowingly failed to recall millions of their defective vehicles” that contained “potentially deadly defects” and, as a result, put “countless lives at risk from 2006 to date” and caused their insureds to suffer property damage including the loss of use of their vehicles.

  • November 19, 2024

    Federal Class Action Complaint Accuses Auto Insurer, Law Firm Of Barratry

    HOUSTON — Insureds filed a class action complaint in a Texas federal court against an automobile insurer and a law firm alleging that they committed barratry, conspiracy and statutory violations by illegally sharing the personal information of car accident victims for solicitation.

  • November 18, 2024

    Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Chemical Injury Suits

    RICHMOND, Va. — An insurer contends in a complaint filed in Virginia federal court that no coverage is owed to its insured for underlying suits alleging injuries caused by an influx of chlorine and muriatic acid into the insured homeowners association’s pool because the policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the suits.

  • November 18, 2024

    Philadelphia Eagles Ask Court To Reconsider Dismissal Of COVID-19 Coverage Suit

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

  • November 15, 2024

    Defendants Seeks Extension In $1B RICO Insurance Fraud Scheme Involving Magnate

    RALEIGH, N.C. —  Defendant asset management companies on Nov. 15 moved in North Carolina federal court for more time to respond to an amended complaint in a suit accusing them, former insurance magnate Greg E. Lindberg and other parties of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations related to their purported participation in a $1 billion scheme to defraud now-insolvent insurers once owned by Lindberg.

  • November 14, 2024

    Government Files Counterclaim In Suit Over Captive Insurance Program, Penalties

    PITTSBURGH — In a text-only order, a Pennsylvania federal judge removed the Internal Revenue Service from the caption of a dispute over a suit over penalties resulting from that agency’s decision that a Pittsburgh-based corporation’s involvement with a purported captive insurance program constituted tax shelter promotion; additionally, the government has moved to dismiss or strike a laches claim and asserted a counterclaim.

  • November 13, 2024

    Amicus Bid Is Contested In 6th Circuit Appeal Of Collateral Estoppel Ruling

    CINCINNATI — A request for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has drawn a reinsurer’s opposition in the appeal of a ruling that collateral estoppel applies to a defense costs dispute concerning asbestos lawsuits and prior arbitration.

  • November 12, 2024

    Insurers Say Kia, Hyundai Disregarded Dangerous Defects For Years

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — Several insurers filed a complaint in subrogation in California state court accusing the makers of Kia and Hyundai-brand cars of causing insureds harm in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by failing to report or recall vehicles with dangerous electrical defects, including spontaneously catching fire while deactivated.

  • November 12, 2024

    Insurer Asks Georgia Federal Court To Find No Coverage Owed For Wrongful Death Suit

    ATLANTA — A commercial general liability insurer filed a lawsuit in a Georgia federal court, seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify its tavern operator insured against an underlying wrongful death lawsuit, asserting that the underlying bodily injury did not take place at the policy’s “Designated Location” to trigger coverage and the policy’s “assault and battery,”  “expected or intended injury,” “liquor liability” and “duty to defend” exclusions bar coverage.

  • November 12, 2024

    Group Outlines Dismissal Arguments In Another Reinsurer’s RICO Lawsuit

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As it has done in a similar Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act suit that a different reinsurer filed in New York federal court over purportedly fraudulent workers’ compensation claims and personal injury lawsuits, a group of defendants filed a pre-motion letter outlining plans to seek dismissal.

  • November 12, 2024

    Pollution Liability Insurer Objects To Report, Says Suit Should Be Transferred

    LAFAYETTE, La. — An insurer contends that a Louisiana federal magistrate’s report and recommendation should not be adopted because the magistrate judge incorrectly determined that a suit filed by insureds, who seeks coverage for an underlying contamination suit, should be transferred to Oklahoma federal court where a similar suit filed by the insurer is pending.

  • November 11, 2024

    Insured Asks 4th Circuit To Reconsider No Coverage Ruling For Cryptocurrency Loss

    RICHMOND, Va. — An insured filed a petition seeking a rehearing or rehearing en banc of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a lower court’s dismissal of his breach of contract lawsuit seeking homeowners insurance coverage for his alleged $170,000 cryptocurrency loss, challenging the courts’ findings that the loss of cryptocurrency is not a “direct physical loss” to trigger policy coverage.

  • November 08, 2024

    Insurers Dispute Coverage For BIPA Violation Class Action Against Taco Bell Owners

    NEW ORLEANS — Commercial general liability and umbrella insurers filed a complaint in an Illinois federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that they have no duty to defend and indemnify against an underlying class action lawsuit alleging that the owners and operators of Taco Bell restaurants in Illinois violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

  • November 06, 2024

    Insurer Files Counterclaim, Third-Party Complaint In Reinsurance Dispute

    TAMPA, Fla. — Telling an Illinois federal court that it is willing to reimburse claims totaling $1,889,541 if it is first paid “premiums of $4,156,531” in a reinsurance dispute, an insurer filed a declaratory judgment counterclaim against the reinsurer combined with a third-party complaint against the insured.

  • November 05, 2024

    Validity Of Kaiser’s Bankruptcy Plan Debated On Remand From Supreme Court

    RICHMOND, Va. — Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. has standing to object to the debtors’ reorganization plan, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should uphold the insurer’s merits arguments and reverse confirmation of the plan, the insurer says in its Nov. 4 supplemental reply brief on remand from the high court.

  • November 05, 2024

    Church, Insurer Seek Rehearing Of Coverage Suit Arising From Hurricanes Laura, Delta

    NEW ORLEANS — A church insured and its insurer filed petitions seeking a panel rehearing of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ Oct. 17 ruling that partly reversed a lower federal court’s ruling in the insured’s lawsuit alleging that the insurer underpaid its losses arising from hurricanes Laura and Delta, with both relying on First Baptist Church of Iowa v. CM Insurance Company in their respective arguments.

  • November 05, 2024

    Contractor Supports Appeal Of $2.3 Million Arbitration Award In Favor Of Insurer

    NEW YORK — Replying to insurers’ assertion that its argument on appeal is a “baffling hodgepodge of factual omissions, misstatements of fact, and misapplications of law,” a general contractor countered that the insurers’ argument “reads as a disturbing, conspiratorial, accusatory tirade” and asked the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a decision upholding an arbitration panel’s award of a $2.3 million judgment in the insurers’ favor as part of a settlement with a subcontractor that the insurers said provided faulty concrete work for a construction project.

  • November 05, 2024

    Insurer Voluntarily Dismisses Remaining Defendants In Faulty Construction Coverage Suit

    DENVER — A plaintiff insurer asked a Colorado federal court to dismiss the remaining defendants in a dispute over coverage for a construction company accused of causing damages to homes through faulty construction following settlements reached by the plaintiff insurer and defendant insurers.

  • November 05, 2024

    Freddie Mac, Insurer Move To Dismiss Claims Between Them In D&O Coverage Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) and an insurer filed a joint stipulation asking a Washington federal court to dismiss the claims between them in 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.

  • November 04, 2024

    Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Suits Stemming From Explosion, Insurers Say

    HOUSTON — No coverage is owed for underlying suits arising out of an explosion caused by a chemical release at a chemical plant because coverage is barred by the pollution exclusion included in the insurers’ excess liability policies, the insurers maintain in a complaint filed in Texas federal court.

  • November 04, 2024

    Insurer: No D&O Coverage Owed For Claims Insured’s Employee Mishandled Corpse

    CHICAGO — An insurer filed suit in an Illinois federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend and indemnify against an underlying lawsuit alleging that its insured’s employee mishandled the remains of a decedent whose body was donated for research, arguing that directors and officers and entity liability (D&O) coverage is barred by the policy’s professional services, medical service, contract and bodily injury exclusions.

  • October 31, 2024

    Bid To Seal Reinsurance Agreements Disputed In Case Involving Direct Action

    NEW ORLEANS — What information in four reinsurance agreements must be revealed is the subject of a dispute in Louisiana federal court, with a third-party plaintiff invoking a local rule and referencing several other cases and a third-party defendant countering that the third-party plaintiff “continues to seek commercially sensitive reinsurance information from a competitor which is not relevant to any viable claim or defense in this case.”