Here’s our October Insurance Update. The Sixth Circuit had insurance on its mind this past month.  Three of the decisions we discuss in our update are from that court. First, the Sixth Circuit joins the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits in finding that pandemic-based business interruption losses did not amount to a “direct physical loss of …
Read More

The cyber insurance market landscape continues to change, as insurers grapple with the growing threats hackers pose to policyholders. But less discussed are insurers’ internal cyber security practices. Insurers possess extensive personal information about policyholders, making insurers attractive targets for hackers. In October 2017, responding to these concerns, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the …
Read More

Here is what we cover in this issue of The Title Reporter: A Legal Update for the Title Insurance Industry: An appellate court in California has ruled that the state’s Quiet Title Act insulated a third party from the effect of a subsequent invalidation of an earlier quiet title judgment only if the third party …
Read More

Court Dismisses Claims Against Insurer For Bad Faith Failure To Settle, And For Consequential And Punitive Damages Scottsdale issued a policy to Watershed Ventures, LLC, which included Directors and Officers Liability Coverage.  Scottsdale filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration that Patrick McGrath was not covered under the policy for a claim against McGrath.  …
Read More

September.  Synonymous with back to school, the end of summer, and the start of the NFL season.  And while the Cowboys and Bucs kicked off the season this year, another epic battle was brewing out west in the corridors of the Ninth Circuit. The public policy in most states is to enforce arbitration agreements in …
Read More

Court Declines To Rescind Policy Based On Issues Of Fact As To Materiality Of Alleged Misrepresentations Union Mutual disclaimed coverage for a fire loss at its insured’s restaurant and sought to rescind its policy based upon the insured’s alleged misrepresentations in its application that it did not have “open flame cooking” or a Single Room …
Read More

Here is what you will find in our August Insurance Update: Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage for Criminal Proceeding Over Submission of Fraudulent Coal-Dust Samples, Sixth Circuit Affirms Fifth Circuit Finds Insurer Has Duty to Defend Insured for a Data Breach Litigation Under Policy’s Personal and Advertising Coverage Warranty Exclusion Bars D&O Liability Coverage for Claim …
Read More

The New York Court of Appeals’ past term was as unusual a term as practitioners and judges ever could have imagined. Of course, COVID-19 continued to affect the Court’s operations. On top of that, the early retirement of Judge Paul Feinman, followed by his untimely death, the subsequent retirement of Judge Leslie Stein, and the …
Read More

Southern District of New York Holds That COVID-19 Claim Not Covered Café du Soleil (the Café) operates a small Manhattan restaurant that suffered financial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic and suspended operations following state and municipal shutdown orders.  XL Insurance issued the Café a commercial property policy that provided business interruption coverage in the event …
Read More

A recent federal appeals court case applying Utah law goes to the heart of the conflict that arises between a policyholder and insurer when an insurer defends a policyholder under a reservation of rights and receives a settlement offer. The case is Owners Ins. Co. v. Dockstader, No. 19-4156 (10th Cir. June 29, 2021). The …
Read More