The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that an insurance company was obligated to pay costs and attorney’s fees awarded in an action against its insured ? even though the compensatory damages awarded against its insured were not covered by the policy.

The Case 

After a fire at their home, David and Kathy Donnelly hired Rimar

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision that a building owner’s expenses in seeking to stabilize and then to demolish a building damaged in a windstorm were not covered under its commercial general liability insurance policy.  

The Case 

Several years ago, Clarinet, LLC, purchased a building in

A federal district court has ruled that a shooting that formed the basis of a state court judgment was not an “accident,” and therefore was not an “occurrence,” for purposes of determining coverage under two homeowner’s insurance policies.  

The Case 

Alexander Yin sued Andrew Pira and his father Richard, alleging that Andrew Pira and some

A federal district court has ruled that an insured did not destroy evidence when it removed a wrecked ship without first notifying its insurer.  

The Case 

During insurance coverage litigation between Starr Indemnity & Liability Company and New York Marine & General Insurance Company (together, “Starr”) and the Continental Cement Co., Starr asserted that Continental

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In Plain English

Copyright © 2013 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Celeste M. Butera, a partner in the firm’s Insurance Coverage & Litigation and Intellectual Property Practice Groups and Stuart I. Gordon and Matthew V. Spero, members of the firm’s Corporate & Commercial Practice Group, co-authored, “Court’s Divide Over Intellectual Property Licensee’s Rights When Bankrupt Licensor Rejects License,” which appeared in the April/May 2013 issue of Pratts

In a case that has far-reaching ramifications because of the exponential expansion of cyberspace in general, and because of the growth of commerce over the Internet in particular, the New York Court of Appeals has rejected challenges by two major online retailers to New York’s “Internet tax,”[1] which requires collection of a sales tax on

Suppose that a company licenses a trademark ? or some other form of intellectual property ? from a company that owns a trademark (the “licensor”), the licensor files for bankruptcy protection, and the bankruptcy trustee exercises its rights under the Bankruptcy Code to “reject” (i.e., breach) the trademark license. What are the licensee’s rights and

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION – MASS TORTS & DEVELOPMENTS

Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Ford
No. 16, Sept. Term 2012 (Md. Feb. 26, 2013)

The Court of Appeals of Maryland has adopted standards for medical monitoring and fear-of-cancer claims in a pair of companion decisions regarding alleged exposure to methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) and benzene arising

 No Coverage Where No Written Agreement To Name City As Additional Insured

Harleysville issued general liability insurance policies to Bruno Grgas, Inc. and to Coastal Sheet Metal Corp., providing additional insured coverage where the insured and the organization seeking additional insured coverage agreed in writing that the insured add the organization as an additional insured. 

A federal district court in New York has ruled that the “wrongful acts” exclusion in a professional liability insurance policy issued to an accounting firm excluded coverage for claims against the accounting firm allegedly arising from fraud and misrepresentation by the firm’s clients.

The Case

Customers of Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp. (“CCCC”) and Cambridge/Brighton Budget

A federal district court in Alabama has ruled that a law firm did not have an insurable interest in a commercial building that was destroyed by fire and it therefore granted summary judgment in favor of the insurer that had issued commercial liability and property insurance policies for the building.  

The Case

Guster Law Firm,

An insurance company that first sought to cancel an insurance policy based on an alleged misrepresentation in an application for the policy waived its right to subsequently seek to have the policy declared void ab initio, a federal district court in Connecticut has ruled. Moreover, the court also decided, the insurer was equitably estopped from

A life insurance carrier may rescind a life insurance policy that it issued after it received an application from the insured, performed a medical exam on the insured, and obtained a form from the insured that misrepresented that there had been no changes to his health since the medical exam, a federal district court in

A federal district court has decided that an insurance company’s “conclusory” allegations that applications contained false statements amounting to fraud were insufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. 

The Case

An insurance company alleged that there were false statements made in insurance applications and filed suit against Risk Placement Services, Gloria Lam, and Joan Vascones