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Mealey's Insurance

  • April 01, 2025

    Suit Against Contractors Pollution Liability Insurer Will Remain In Federal Court

    BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana federal judge adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and denied an insured’s motion to remand a bad faith lawsuit filed against a contractors professional and pollution liability insurer, agreeing with the magistrate judge that the suit is not a direct action suit under federal law as required to avoid federal jurisdiction.

  • April 01, 2025

    Judge Says Policies’ Limit Is Based On Per-Claim Calculation Of Lead Injury Claims

    ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in a coverage dispute over underlying personal injury claims arising out of the insured’s lead-smelting operations, rejecting the insurer’s argument that the total limit of liability under its first two policies issued to the insured is $1.5 million and explaining that the total limit of liability under the first two policies is $21.5 million based on a policy endorsement that changed the limits of liability to $500,000 per claim.

  • April 01, 2025

    Excess Insurer Permitted To Pay Same Attorney Fee Rate As Primary Insurer

    PHILADELPHIA — An excess insurer cannot force an insured water utility company to choose substitute counsel to represent it in underlying lawsuits stemming from lead-contaminated water but the excess insurer can pay the same attorney fee rate as the primary insurer because the excess policy follow forms to the insured’s primary policy.

  • April 01, 2025

    Insurer, Reinsurer Seek To Oppose Reconsideration Of Cleanup Case Production Ruling

    PADUCAH, Ky. — An insurer and reinsurer seek leave from a Kentucky federal magistrate judge to file an opposition to a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents from the insurers in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs; they argue in their reply in support of their motion for leave that the motion for reconsideration violates at least two prior orders and improperly raises new arguments.

  • April 01, 2025

    Washington Panel: Tribe Fails To Show COVID-19 Caused Direct Physical Loss, Damage

    SEATTLE — A Washington appeals court panel on March 31 held that a federally recognized Indian tribe did not state a claim that the COVID-19 virus caused “direct physical loss or damage” to its insured properties, affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the insured’s bad faith complaint arising from the pandemic.

  • March 31, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Toss Property Owner’s Coverage Suit Over Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana denied builders risk insurers’ motion to dismiss a property owner’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking additional insured coverage for its $89,877,694 in losses arising from the aftermath of the partial collapse of a Hard Rock Hotel project in New Orleans, concluding that the insureds’ claims cannot be dismissed as prescribed.

  • March 25, 2025

    Relief From Final Judgment In Wastewater Coverage Suit Not Warranted, Judge Says

    JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge on March 24 denied an insured’s motion for relief from final judgment after determining that a recent jury verdict in a criminal case related to illegally discharged wastewater by the insured does not change the fact that the underlying suit filed against the insured alleged intentional acts, which are excluded under the pollution liability policy at issue.

  • March 25, 2025

    Pollution Exclusions Relieve Insurers Of Duty To Defend In Freon Leak Lawsuits

    AUGUSTA, Ga. — Primary and excess insurers have no duty to defend their insured against two underlying lawsuits arising out of a Freon leak that caused the death of an underlying claimant and required the evacuation of an events arena because the policies’ pollution exclusions clearly bar coverage for the Freon leak, a Georgia federal judge said March 24.

  • March 25, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Approves Joint Case Management Statement In PFAS Coverage Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — After finding that a pollution exclusion bars coverage for some, but not all, underlying lawsuits filed against an insured and alleging injuries related to exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allegedly contained in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) that were manufactured and sold by the insured, a California federal magistrate judge approved a joint case management statement submitted by the parties regarding how to adjudicate the hundreds of lawsuits filed against the insured.

  • March 25, 2025

    Fungi Exclusion Bars Coverage For Underlying Failure-To-Disclose Suit, Insurer Says

    ST. LOUIS — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying suit filed by the buyer of the insured’s home, who alleges that the insured failed to disclose the presence of mold in the home prior to the sale, because the insured’s homeowners policy excludes coverage for fungi and bacteria and because the policy was terminated prior to the filing of the underlying suit, a homeowners insurer says in a complaint filed in Missouri federal court.

  • March 24, 2025

    Subcontractor’s Chapter 11 Exclusive Periods Extended Over Objections Of Insurers

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal bankruptcy judge has given defunct ship subcontractor and Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. more time to file its bankruptcy plan despite objections by two of the company’s insurers, which say Hopeman’s new proposal to ditch its plan of liquidation in favor of a reorganization plan with an asbestos trust is unworkable and would be a waste of the estate’s limited funds.

  • March 21, 2025

    Florida Panel Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Insureds’ Coronavirus Suit

    MIAMI — A Florida appeals court panel held that hotel insureds are not owed business interruption coverage in the absence of “direct physical loss” or “damage” to their properties, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • March 19, 2025

    Insurers’ Motion For Injunction Denied; Similar Contamination Suit Stayed

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge denied a motion for an injunction filed by insurers in an environmental contamination dispute after determining that an injunction is not warranted to enjoin a county from filing similar suits in different forums based on the judge’s stay of the similar lawsuit, which also is pending before the same judge in West Virginia federal court.

  • March 19, 2025

    Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide Injury Suits

    DETROIT — No coverage is owed for underlying suits seeking damages for bodily injuries incurred as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning stemming from a malfunctioning pool heater at an insured’s hotel because the excess policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the underlying suits, an excess insurer says in a complaint filed in Michigan federal court.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Opposes Catholic Diocese’s Motion To File Amicus Brief In Contamination Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer on March 17 filed an opposition to a California Catholic diocese’s motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief in an insured’s appeal in a groundwater contamination coverage suit, telling the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the diocese should not be granted leave to file an amicus brief because the diocese’s arguments are not relevant to the contamination coverage dispute at issue.

  • March 18, 2025

    Panel Says Underlying Asbestos Suits Are Covered Under Premises-Operations Policies

    FORT WORTH, Texas — The Second District Texas Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s ruling that an insurer has a continued duty to defend its insured against underlying asbestos bodily injury lawsuits because the trial court properly found that the underlying allegations fall within the policies’ premises-operations coverage and the insurer failed to show that its policies have been exhausted.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Cleanup Costs

    MUSKOGEE, Okla. — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying suit seeking payment for cleanup and environmental services following an accident involving the insured because the policy's pollution exclusion and trucking exclusion bar coverage for the underlying suit, an insurer argues in its complaint filed in Oklahoma federal court.

  • March 17, 2025

    Parties Reach Settlement After Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over Water Damage

    NEW YORK — Three days after a federal judge in New York found that the undisputed record is clear that an insured’s alleged interior water damage to its two-story commercial office building falls squarely within an insurance policy's anti-concurrent causation clause, the parties on March 14 announced that they reached a settlement.

  • March 11, 2025

    Insured Says Reimbursement Owed For Underlying Water Contamination Complaints

    LOS ANGELES — An insured company filed suit in California federal court against its general liability insurer, claiming that the insurer’s refusal to defend it or reimburse it for costs incurred in defending itself against two water contamination suits was a breach of contract and a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

  • March 11, 2025

    Trial Court Properly Found Insurer Was Prevailing Party In Water Damage Suit

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A trial court did not err in determining that a homeowners insurer was the prevailing party in a water damage coverage dispute because the insureds agreed to dismiss their breach of contract claim prior to trial and the insureds failed to prove their claims for bad faith and violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act (KCPA), the Kentucky Court of Appeals said.

  • March 11, 2025

    Vermont High Court Affirms Quash Of Insurer Subpoena In J&J Talc Coverage Suit

    MONTPELIER, Vt. — An insurer trying to escape liability for a verdict against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in an asbestos-talc bodily injury mass tort litigation improperly served an out-of-state subpoena on a regulatory department for information filed by the company’s captive insurance company without first establishing that the information it sought was not available from other nonconfidential sources, the Vermont Supreme Court found, upholding a trial court's decision to quash the subpoena.

  • March 11, 2025

    Insured’s Water Damage Suit Properly Dismissed For Lack Of Ripeness, Panel Says

    PASADENA, Calif. — A district court properly dismissed an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit stemming from a water damage coverage dispute because the insured’s claims are not ripe based on a petition filed by the property insurer in Rhode Island state court to appoint an umpire to conduct an appraisal proceeding, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming the lower court’s ruling.

  • March 11, 2025

    Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Insured’s Contamination Claims

    NEW YORK — A New York County Supreme Court justice granted a motion for summary judgment filed by insurers in an environmental contamination coverage suit after determining that the pollution exclusion in the various insurers’ policies bars coverage for the environmental contamination and that the sudden and accidental exception to the exclusion does not apply to provide coverage for the contamination.

  • March 10, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Sustainability Recalibration: What Insurers And Policyholders Should Know About ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Considerations) Under Trump 2.0, Part 2

    By Scott M. Seaman

  • March 10, 2025

    Reinsurance Dispute Closed After Parties Agree To Dismiss All Claims

    OMAHA, Neb. — A federal judge in Nebraska dismissed with prejudice a suit involving a reinsurance contract and a settlement with the state of Montana over alleged asbestos exposures, following a joint stipulation between the parties to dismiss all claims.