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Mealey's Catastrophic Loss

  • June 24, 2022

    Building Owner, Property Manager Seek Additional Insured Coverage For 2018 Shooting

    BALTIMORE — The owner and property manager of a building leased by the Baltimore Sun Co. LLC sued the newspaper’s commercial general liability insurer in a federal court in Maryland on June 21 seeking a declaration as to additional insured coverage for underlying wrongful death and negligence lawsuits arising from a 2018 shooting in which five newspaper employees were killed.

  • June 24, 2022

    Citing ‘Very Different’ Policy, Judge Partly Rules For Insured In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — Partially granting a real estate trust insured’s motion for partial summary judgment in its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for its business interruption losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in California on June 15 held that the insured’s “very different” insurance policy has to be interpreted “to encapsulate the very thing for which” the insured seeks coverage.

  • June 23, 2022

    Insurer Withdraws Limited Objections To $1B Champlain Towers Collapse Class Settlement

    MIAMI —Six days after an insurer filed a limited objection to a proposed final judgment, proposed receivership bar order and proposed definition of “settlement class” in a consolidated putative class lawsuit filed by unit owners and estates of those who died in the June 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South (CTS) in Surfside, Fla., the insurer withdrew the objection on June 22.

  • June 23, 2022

    Claims Against Mortgagee Dismissed In Hurricane Coverage Damage Dispute

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge on June 15 dismissed claims for breach of contract and conversion against a mortgagee after determining that the mortgagee did not act in bad faith in withholding funds paid by a homeowners insurer until after repairs were made to the insureds’ home.

  • June 17, 2022

    Panel: Restaurant Did Not Suffer ‘Direct Physical Loss Of Or Damage To Property’

    CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals panel on June 15 held that a restaurant insured did not incur “direct physical loss of or damage to property” under a commercial property insurance policy when the insured suspended or scaled back its operations as required by governmental restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer.

  • June 16, 2022

    Panel Finds ‘No Reversible Error’ In Court’s No Coverage Ruling In COVID-19 Dispute

    RICHMOND, Va. — Dispensing with oral argument, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 14 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in an insured’s lawsuit seeking a declaration as to business interruption coverage for the effects on its business and operations from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • June 16, 2022

    Louisiana Majority Finds Policy Language Ambiguous In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A majority of a Louisiana appeals court on June 15 held that an insurance policy is ambiguous and capable of more than one reasonable interpretation as to coverage for a French Quarter restaurant insured’s lost business income arising from the coronavirus pandemic, reversing a lower court’s judgment against the insured and holding that coverage exists for the insured’s loss or damage caused by “direct physical loss of or damage to” its premises as a result of COVID-19 contamination.

  • June 16, 2022

    Motion To Dismiss Insured’s Claims In COVID, Pollution Suit Properly Denied

    BRONX, N.Y. — A trial court did not err in denying a pollution legal liability insurer’s motion to dismiss an insured’s claims for breach of contract and bad faith arising out of the insured’s claim for business interruption losses caused by the shutdown orders issued in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the insurer failed to meet its burden of proving that no coverage is afforded under the policy for the losses, the First Department of the New York County Supreme Court Appellate Division said June 14.

  • June 16, 2022

    Allocation Agreement Altered; Final Approval Of $1B Condo Collapse Pact Sought

    MIAMI — A Florida judge on June 13 issued a supplemental order approving a previously announced increase of the allocation settlement agreement for unit owners suing over the June 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South (CTS) in Surfside, Fla., and granted a request by the receiver for an extension of the deadline to submit the proposed form escrow agreement due to a “dispute” between one group of settling defendants and its insurers.

  • June 15, 2022

    Amtrak Says It Did Not Act In Bad Faith When Reporting Personal Injury Suit

    TAMPA, Fla. — Responding to an insurer’s opposition to its motion to amend a Florida federal court’s declaratory judgment in favor of the insurer, Amtrak on June 10 argues that it acted in good faith and advised the insurer of an underlying personal injury lawsuit arising from a collision soon after discovering that the insurance policy existed.

  • June 14, 2022

    4th Circuit Affirms No Coverage For Hotel, Restaurant Owner’s Coronavirus Losses

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 9 affirmed a North Carolina federal court’s dismissal of a hotel and restaurant owner insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit, finding no reversible error in the lower court’s finding that the insured has failed to allege that COVID-19 was discovered on its insured properties.

  • June 10, 2022

    5th Circuit: Court Properly Excluded Expert Testimony In Lightning Coverage Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 8 held that a federal court properly granted an insurer’s motion to exclude an insured’s expert testimony in a coverage dispute over property damage caused by lightning, finding that the expert failed to demonstrate how his experience and expertise led to his conclusions about causation.

  • June 10, 2022

    Panel: Insured Fails To Allege Physical Alteration, Dispossession Of Restaurant

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 8 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of an insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a restaurant owner insured’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that the insured fails to assert physical dispossession or physical alteration of its property sufficient to constitute a “direct physical loss” under its policy.

  • June 10, 2022

    6th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Consolidated Class Action Over Coronavirus Losses

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 8 affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of a consolidated class action seeking coverage for insureds’ losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, saying that although it is sympathetic to the challenges many businesses across the country have been forced to confront, it may not reconstruct the policy terms or grant the insureds a contractual benefit they did not bargain for.

  • June 08, 2022

    No Coverage For Alabama Clothing Stores’ Coronavirus Losses, 11th Circuit Affirms

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 6 predicted that Alabama appellate courts would conclude that an “all-risk” commercial insurance policy provides no coverage for a clothing store owner insured’s business income losses because the coronavirus did not cause physical loss or damage to its property, affirming a lower federal court’s dismissal of the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit.

  • June 08, 2022

    7th Circuit:  Recent Decisions Control Outcome Of Jeweler’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 3 affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of a Chicago jeweler’s lawsuit seeking commercial property coverage for its lost income and extra expenses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that it “has repeatedly held that ‘direct physical loss’ means tangible, physical alteration to property, not merely loss of use.”

  • June 08, 2022

    Panel: Insured Failed To Plausibly Assert ‘Tangible Alteration’ Of Properties

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held June 1 that a lower federal court did not err in dismissing an insured’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit against its insurer, finding that the insured failed to plausibly assert “a tangible alteration of the insured properties” to trigger coverage.

  • June 08, 2022

    8th Circuit:  No Coverage Owed For Restaurants’ Losses Over Coronavirus Pandemic

    ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 6 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in tri-state restaurant owner insureds’ lawsuit seeing coverage for their losses and expenses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, rejecting the insureds’ argument that the lower court erred when it just applied Kansas law.

  • June 07, 2022

    Panel: No Coverage For Planet Fitness Franchisees’ Losses Arising From Coronavirus

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 2 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of a commercial property insurer in a coronavirus coverage dispute, finding that the losses incurred by the owners and operators of four Florida Planet Fitness franchise locations did not constitute “direct physical loss of or damage to” their property.

  • June 07, 2022

    7th Circuit Affirms No Coverage For Chicago Limo Company’s Coronavirus Losses

    CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 6 affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of a Chicago limousine company insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its business losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that Sandy Point Dental, P.C. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co. and East Coast Entm't of Durham, LLC v. Houston Cas. Co. & Am. Claims Mgmt., Inc. foreclose the insured’s appeal.