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Mealey's Insurance

June 13, 2024
Failure To Timely Submit Proof-Of-Loss Forms Is Fatal To Insured’s Bad Faith Suit

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A New York federal judge granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment after determining that the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit cannot proceed because the insured failed to submit proof-of-loss statements regarding the water damage in his home within 60 days as required by the policy.
June 11, 2024
Insurer Ordered To Produce Documents Related To Occupational Disease Claims

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge ordered an insurer to produce claims manuals, guidelines and policies related to the insurer’s evaluation of occupational disease and employer liability claims because the documents, requested by the insured, are relevant to the insurer’s handling of the insured’s claim for coverage for an underlying asbestos bodily injury claim.
June 11, 2024
Environmental Contamination Coverage Suit Transferred From Alabama To Georgia

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An environmental contamination coverage suit filed by a number of insurers against their insured must be transferred to Georgia federal court because almost all of the events giving rise to the contamination at issue occurred in Georgia and the plaintiff insurers will not be inconvenienced by the transfer, an Alabama federal judge said in granting the insured’s motion to transfer to the suit to Georgia federal court.
June 10, 2024
Insureds Urge 8th Circuit To Find Pollution Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage

ST. LOUIS — A pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for an underlying bodily injury claim stemming from carbon monoxide exposure because the pollution exclusion applies only to traditional environmental pollution claims, the insureds claim in their appellant reply brief filed in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
June 10, 2024
Coverage Excluded For Child’s Injury Caused By Chemical In Mints, Insurer Says

ST. LOUIS — No coverage is owed to insureds for an underlying suit seeking damages caused by a child’s ingestion of liquid breath mints that contained a chemical that damaged the child’s esophagus because the policy’s pollution exclusion applies as a bar to coverage, an insurer says in a complaint filed in Missouri federal court.
June 10, 2024
Indiana Federal Court Lacks Personal Jurisdiction Over Insurers In CERCLA Case

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Due to a lack of personal jurisdiction, an Indiana federal judge denied a motion to bar contribution claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act against a group of insurance companies that allegedly sold policies to a company that polluted an industrial site with hazardous substances because there is no case or controversy involving the insurers.
June 10, 2024
Choice-Of-Law Ruling In Environmental Coverage Dispute Certified For Appeal

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion to certify a choice-of-law ruling for interlocutory appeal to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after determining that resolution of the issue could help to advance litigation of the environmental contamination coverage suit.
June 06, 2024
Supreme Court Reverses, Says Asbestos Debtor’s Insurer Can Challenge Reorganization

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. is on the hook for most of the debtors’ asbestos liabilities under their reorganization plan, it is a party in interest that has standing to object to the plan, the U.S. Supreme Court held June 6 in a unanimous decision.
June 05, 2024
Coblentz Settlement Cannot Be Enforced Against Excess Insurers, 11th Circuit Affirms

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of excess insurers in an insured’s lawsuit seeking to enforce a Coblentz v. Am.Sur. Co. of N.Y. settlement agreement arising from an underlying negligence action, finding that the excess insurers did not breach their duty to defend because they offered to defend under a reservation of rights.
June 04, 2024
Civil Conspiracy Claim In Mold Coverage Suit Cannot Proceed, Magistrate Judge Says

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal magistrate judge dismissed a civil conspiracy claim alleged by insureds against their homeowners insurer and the insurer’s preferred mold remediation company after determining that the insureds failed to show that there was any agreement between the insurer and the mold remediation company.
June 04, 2024
Wisconsin Federal Judge Agrees With Insurers On Occurrence Limits Issue

GREEN BAY, Wis. — A Wisconsin federal judge partially granted summary judgment in favor of two insurers in an environmental contamination dispute on the issue of the policies’ occurrence limits, determining that based on the applicable policies’ language, one insurer’s liability is limited to $5 million for each of its three policy periods and the other insurer’s liability is limited to $5 million over the entire three-year period during which its policy was in effect.
May 31, 2024
Professional Services Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide Injury Suits

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A trial court did not err in finding that no coverage is owed for underlying personal injury lawsuits stemming from a carbon monoxide leak because the underlying allegations involve the insured’s rendering of professional services and are therefore barred from coverage by the policies’ professional services exclusion, the Fourth District Illinois Appellate Court said in affirming the trial court’s ruling.
May 30, 2024
Insurers Owe No Coverage For Underlying Judgments In Asbestos Exposure Suits

SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court properly found that two insurers owe no coverage for underlying judgments totaling $41 million entered against their insured in underlying lawsuits arising out of a claimant’s exposure to asbestos in the insured’s products because the policies’ auto exclusions apply as a bar to coverage based on the fact that the claimant was exposed to the asbestos while unloading the insured’s product from the insured’s delivery van, the First District California Court of Appeal said.
May 29, 2024
11th Circuit Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Generator Emissions Suit

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 28 affirmed a district court’s ruling that an insurer owes no coverage for underlying suits filed by residents of a condominium building who claim that they were injured as a result of fumes exhausted from a backup power generator, agreeing with the lower court’s conclusion that the policies’ pollution exclusions bar coverage for the generator, which was stored in a utility closet that was occupied or owned by the insured.
May 28, 2024
Questions Of Fact Exist As To Cause Of Damaged Floor, Magistrate Judge Says

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin federal magistrate judge denied an insured’s motion for partial summary judgment in a coverage suit stemming from the collapse of the insured’s roof because questions of fact exist regarding the cause of a heaved floor, discovered after the collapse, and whether any of the policy’s exclusions, including those pertaining to earth movement, subsurface water and defects, bar coverage for the damaged floor.
May 24, 2024
N.C. High Court Agrees To Review Clothing Retailer’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court on May 23 granted a clothing retailer insured’s request to review an appeals court’s ruling that affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of its lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 20, 2024
Talc Debtors Imerys, Cyprus’ Settlement With Insurer Nets $6.25M For Asbestos Trust

WILMINGTON, Del. — A liability insurer for the parent of Chapter 11 asbestos talc debtor Cyprus Mines Corp. will pay $6.25 million to a planned trust to pay asbestos claims after the debtor and affiliates reorganize, according to a settlement agreement that was approved by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge.
May 17, 2024
Connecticut Judge Strikes Claims Filed Against Insurer In Mold Damage Suit

VERNON, Conn. — A Connecticut judge granted an insurer’s motion to strike bad faith, unfair trade practices and unjust enrichment claims because an additional insured who seeks coverage for mold and property damages related to the collapse of a hallway floor failed to sufficiently support the claims.
May 17, 2024
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide, Insurer Tells 8th Circuit

ST. LOUIS — A pollution exclusion clearly bars coverage for an underlying bodily injury claim stemming from carbon monoxide exposure because carbon monoxide qualifies as a contaminant or irritant under the pollution exclusion, an insurer says, noting in its May 16 appellee brief filed in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that its interpretation of the pollution exclusion is consistent with North Dakota law.
May 17, 2024
Burden Of Proof In Gas Leak Coverage Suit Will Not Be Shifted To Insurer

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge rejected an attempt by insureds to shift the burden of proof to an insurer in a dispute over coverage for underlying personal injury claims stemming from a gas leak at an insured facility because the insurer did not breach its duty to defend and because California public policy does not support insureds’ proposed burden-shifting principle.
May 17, 2024
Additional Insured’s Request For Attorney Fees To Proceed In Chemical Coverage Suit

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An additional insured’s request for attorney fees and costs in a chemical exposure coverage dispute can proceed because the additional insured has alleged sufficient facts in support of its claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing based on a breach of the insurance contract, a New York federal judge said in denying the insurer’s motion to dismiss and to strike.
May 16, 2024
Insurer’s Claims Related To Pollution, Fungi Exclusions Are Plausible, Judge Says

ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge on May 15 denied an insured’s motion to dismiss its insurer’s declaratory judgment claims in a mold exposure coverage dispute because the insurer plausibly alleged that its policy’s pollution exclusion and fungi exclusion bar coverage for the underlying mold exposure suit.
May 16, 2024
Parties In Reinsurance Estoppel Row Brief Arbitration Arguments In 7th Circuit

CHICAGO — Parties to reinsurance agreements who disagree on the effects of prior arbitration are wrangling in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with the appellee arguing in its response brief that whether estoppel applies to the dispute “is an issue reserved for the arbitrators,” not “a threshold arbitrability question reserved for courts.”
May 15, 2024
Coverage For Water Damages Limited To $10K Under Homeowners Policy, Panel Says

HOUSTON — No additional coverage is owed under a homeowners policy for water damages caused by water pipes that burst as a result of power outages and freezing temperatures in the wake of Winter Storm Uri in Texas because the policy’s water damage endorsement clearly limits coverage under the policy to $10,000, the First District Texas Court of Appeals said May 14 in affirming a trial court’s ruling on breach of contract and extracontractual claims.
May 15, 2024
Construction Insurance Coverage Suit Tossed After Underlying Suit Settles

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A federal judge in Georgia dismissed without prejudice a declaratory judgment action brought by an insurer that claimed it owed no coverage for claims related to the insureds’ assembly of a manufactured home that sustained water and mold damage after the parties indicated that the underlying suit had been settled.