A federal district court in West Virginia has ruled that a commercial general liability (“CGL”) insurance company had no obligation to defend its insured against claims for breach of contract.

The Case

Rock “N” Roll Coal Company, Inc., was sued for allegedly failing to make certain royalty payments under a lease. Rock “N” Roll filed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision that a settlement agreement reached between a policyholder and the company that was suing it was not enforceable against the policyholder’s insurance carrier.

The Case

The Interlachen Property Owners Association sued Kuepers Construction, Inc., alleging design and construction defects in

Steven Shapiro was quoted in a Natural Products Insider article entitled, “Dietary Supplement Industry Blasts N.Y. Labeling Legislation.”

In the article, Steven and other industry professionals weigh in on Assembly Bill 7607 which would require a dietary supplement in package form to bear a label containing the name and address of the manufacturer, distributor and

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that an insurance company was not obligated to defend its insured against a claim that its advertisements had falsely described the insured’s own products where the claim did not allege that the insured had disparaged the competitor’s products. 

The Case

Vitamin Health, Inc.

A trial court in Pennsylvania has rejected an insurance company’s argument that it had no obligation to cover a civil action seeking to hold its insured responsible for contamination at a site where the contamination had not been detected during the policy periods, ruling that coverage had been triggered prior to “first manifestation.”

The Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that an exclusion for losses “arising out of asbestos” in 30-year-old excess insurance policies prevented a manufacturer from obtaining indemnification for thousands of negotiated settlements with personal injury plaintiffs.

The Case

General Refractories Company’s use of asbestos to manufacture various products brought about 31,440

In a cautionary tale for all companies, but especially healthcare organizations, on May 12, 2017, multiple news sources reported that a broad cyberattack using ransomware caused substantial interference with critical systems across Europe, Russia and Asia. (See e.g., New York Times, BBC News and Silicon Angle.)

According to the New York Times, the  attacks were

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently announced that CardioNet, Inc., a cardiac monitoring services company, entered into a HIPAA settlement for $2.5 million resulting from the impermissible disclosure of unsecured electronic protected health information (“ePHI”). In addition to the settlement, CardioNet is required to engage in a

Stuart Gordon and Matthew Spero have published an article in Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law entitled, “Pre-Petition Waivers of Bankruptcy Protection:  Typically Unenforceable.”

Click here to read the article.

This article examines a variety of recent lead-paint decisions issued by New York courts, from trial level, to appellate, to the state’s highest court.

As these cases suggest, lead-paint complaints against landlords and property owners are likely to continue to be filed in New York courts for some time to come.

Click here to read

Employee Who Left Job Due to Terminal Illness Was Entitled to Severance Pay, Ninth Circuit Rules

The wife of the plaintiff in this case was employed by the American Society for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (ATS) until her terminal illness forced her to leave her job. The plaintiff contended that his wife was entitled to severance

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Working Families Flexibility Act— a bill that if enacted, would allow private-sector employees to receive “compensatory time” off in lieu of traditional overtime pay. The bill, H.R.1180, passed 229 to 197, largely along party lines, with all the Democrats and just six Republicans voting against it. Employers

Over nearly eight years as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara became recognized as a powerful prosecutor in many areas, including government corruption and white-collar crime. Another subject for which he certainly deserves mention is his strong record helping to fight insurance fraud in New York.

Much can be learned

Court Holds Insurer Did Not Establish Insured’s Failure To Cooperate

An insurer’s disclaimer based on the insured’s lack of cooperation was challenged in court. The Appellate Division, Second Department, found that the insurer made diligent efforts that were reasonably calculated to obtain its insured’s cooperation. However, the court ruled that the

On April 3, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed into law S.J. Resolution 34, a partisan-enacted joint congressional resolution disapproving of (and thus negating) a rule submitted in 2016 by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), which provided additional protections to consumers when using broadband services.  The result is a reversal in privacy provisions that were