Insurance Update
March 21, 2022 |Texas practitioners can add a new term to their legal vocabulary: “the Monroe exception.” The Texas Supreme Court has finally weighed in on whether to create an exception to the eight corners rule when determining if an insurer has a duty to defend. Crafting a rule similar to what the Fifth Circuit proposed years earlier, the Texas high court’s Monroe exception, which permits consideration of extrinsic evidence at times, will no doubt be a term used in Texas coverage litigation for years to come. In fact, on the same day that it adopted the new rule, the Texas high court explained why the Monroe exception didn’t apply to a coverage dispute arising from a golf cart accident. You can read about both decisions in our March Insurance Update.
While there, you might want to check in on the Connecticut Supreme Court who considers if the insured’s nolo plea triggers a criminal acts exclusion. Or see why the 11th Circuit rejected an insured’s excuse for not giving notice of a fire loss sooner and why a federal judge in Washington found the fines and penalties exclusion precluded coverage for a settlement over malware claims.
And before you go, you might want to see how a dispute about Pizza turned into an insurance claim.
We hope that you enjoy the update, and perhaps a slice or two.
Rob Tugander and Greg Mann