Murphy Secures Defense Verdict for Insurance Broker Client

After a seven-day trial, Casey Murphy secured a defense victory on behalf of our insurance broker client in Supreme Court, Queens County. Plaintiff, a construction company, asked our client to renew its general liability insurance policy, which would cover plaintiff’s construction of a three-story residential property with a lower level. Before the policy was bound, plaintiff spoke with our client about an exclusion to the policy for any project above three-stories. While our client confirmed that an exception to the exclusion could be obtained if there was a project above three-stories, plaintiff maintained that the project was a three-story building and did not request one.

At trial, Casey established that our client procured the coverage that plaintiff requested, for a three-story building, and that plaintiff knew before binding the policy about the policy’s three-story exclusion. Casey further convinced the jury that, as the central issue at trial between plaintiff and the co-defendant insurance company was whether the property was more than three-stories, requiring expert testimony, an insurance broker would not know, or be expected to know, whether the lower level of the property constituted a story, and that our client did what was requested of it by plaintiff by procuring coverage for a three-story building.

Debbie Isaacson assisted Casey throughout the litigation of the matter and during the trial, conducting legal research as issues arose during trial, reviewing daily trial testimony transcripts, and assisting with drafting and filing of nightly motions in limine to preclude evidence.