Mealey's Insurance

  • March 27, 2024

    Radioactive Materials Exclusion Applies; Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Claims Fail

    MILWAUKEE — Breach of contract and bad faith claims against two commercial general liability insurers fail because the policies’ radioactive materials exclusion bars coverage for an underlying suit seeking damages for bodily injuries caused by exposure to electromagnetic (EMF) radiation from the insured’s electric transformers, a Wisconsin federal judge said in granting the insurers’ motion for summary judgment.

  • March 26, 2024

    4th Circuit Says No Rehearing In Asbestos Coverage Row With Guaranty Association

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insurer’s request for rehearing and rehearing en banc of the court’s ruling dismissing the insurer’s appeal of a district court’s order remanding to state court a receiver’s asbestos coverage suit against insurers and the South Carolina Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association.

  • March 26, 2024

    Insurers Win Summary Judgment On Bad Faith Claim In Case Over Settlement

    CINCINNATI — Ruling that Marginian v. Allstate Ins. Co. “plainly bars” the sole remaining bad faith claim under Ohio law “[a]nd no amount of discovery could change that,” an Ohio federal judge granted summary judgment for defendant insurers in litigation over the settlement of a third-party personal injury lawsuit.

  • March 26, 2024

    Expert Report Is Relevant To Issue Of Whether Raw Sewage Is Pollutant

    NEW YORK — A New York state justice denied a motion to preclude a primary insurer’s expert report after determining that the testimony is relevant in the dispute over equitable contribution for an underlying water contamination suit because the report addresses the issue of whether raw sewage in drinking water is a pollutant or contaminant.

  • March 25, 2024

    Indiana Federal Judge Awards Insured Prejudgment Interest In Cleanup Suit

    SOUTH BEND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge on March 22 denied insurers’ post-trial motions, upheld a jury’s verdict of $112 million in favor of the insured and awarded the insured approximately $3 million in prejudgment interest in a breach of contract and bad faith suit stemming from the insured’s request for coverage costs related to the cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

  • March 25, 2024

    Insurer Says Lower Court Erred In Placing Burden On Insurer In Pollution Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in placing the burden on an insurer to prove that a pollution exclusion barred coverage for underlying environmental contamination lawsuits because the burden should have been placed on the insureds to prove that the exclusion did not apply as a bar to coverage, an insurer argues in its March 22 appellant brief filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 21, 2024

    Earth Movement Exclusion Bars Coverage For Foundation Settling, Federal Judge Says

    DENVER — Breach of contract and bad faith claims alleged against a homeowners insurer cannot survive because the policy’s earth movement exclusion clearly bars coverage for damages caused by settling in the foundation of the home, a Colorado federal judge said March 20 in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.

  • March 21, 2024

    AFFF Maker Seeks Ruling That Pollution Exclusions Do Not Bar Liability Claims

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — A company that makes the firefighting agent known as aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) has moved in South Carolina federal court for partial summary judgment against a group of insurers asking the court to find that the product liability and common-law causes of action alleging bodily injury and/or property damage that have been asserted against the company in the multidistrict litigation are not excluded from coverage by pollution exclusions.

  • March 21, 2024

    Insurer Failed To Show Faulty Work, Fungi Exclusions Bar Coverage For Assembly Work

    AUGUSTA, Ga. — Summary judgment in favor of a commercial general liability insurer is not warranted because the insurer failed to show that its policy exclusions for faulty work and for fungi or bacteria apply to bar coverage for an underlying negligence suit stemming from the insureds’ assembly of a manufactured home that sustained water and mold damages following the delivery and assembly of the home, a Georgia federal judge ruled.

  • March 20, 2024

    Standing To Object To Chapter 11 Plan Argued In Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The question of who has standing to object to a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was debated March 19 in the U.S. Supreme Court, with some justices questioning why asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. are opposed to having their main liability insurer speak out against their bankruptcy plan.

  • March 19, 2024

    Pollution Exclusion Clearly Bars Coverage For Wastewater Discharge, Panel Says

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 affirmed a district court’s ruling that a pollution exclusion in a directors and officers liability policy bars coverage for underlying lawsuits alleging that the insureds illegally discharged wastewater into city sewage treatment facilities because the exclusion is not ambiguous and clearly bars coverage for the wastewater.

  • March 19, 2024

    3rd Circuit Affirms Ruling For Homeowners Insurer In Water Damage Coverage Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling in favor of a homeowners insurer on breach of contract and bad faith claims in a water damage coverage dispute, agreeing with the insurer that the policy’s one-year suit limitation provision bars the breach of contract claim and that there is no evidence that the insurer’s denial of coverage was unreasonable.

  • March 19, 2024

    Certification Of Pollution Exclusion Question Will Be Considered As Part Of Appeal

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will consider certifying a question to the North Dakota Supreme Court on whether a pollution exclusion bars coverage for an underlying carbon monoxide exposure suit filed against insureds as part of its consideration of the insureds’ appeal on the merits of a district judge’s ruling in favor of the insurer on the pollution exclusion, according to an order issued by the court.

  • March 15, 2024

    Washington High Court: Policy Exception Revives Coverage For Condo’s Roof Collapse

    OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Supreme Court on March 14 found that an appeals court correctly reversed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in an all-risk insurer’s favor in a coverage dispute stemming from condensation damage to a condominium’s roof, finding that a resulting loss exception in the insurance policy revives coverage, even if it would otherwise be precluded by a faulty workmanship exclusion.

  • March 15, 2024

    Arbitration Provision Does Not Apply To Parties’ Settlement Agreement, Texas Panel Says

    DALLAS — A trial court did not err in denying an insurer’s motion to compel arbitration of a dispute over the terms of a 2015 settlement because the dispute over the satisfaction of a self-insured retention limit for benzene-related claims filed against the insured involves the interpretation of the settlement agreement and not the interpretation of the insurance policy at issue, the Fifth District Texas Court of Appeals said in affirming the trial court’s ruling that the arbitration provision applies only to disputes arising under the insurance policy and not under the settlement agreement.

  • March 14, 2024

    Pollution Exclusions Bar Coverage For Judgment Against Insured, 9th Circuit Says

    PASADENA, Calif. — A federal judge did not err in finding that the city of Los Angeles is not entitled to indemnity from two insurers for an underlying judgment obtained against a now-defunct insured because the judge properly found that the policies’ pollution exclusions bar coverage for the insured boatyard operator’s discharges of paint and other toxic materials into the city’s harbor, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 13.

  • March 12, 2024

    Infectious Disease Exclusion Bars Coverage For Underlying E. Coli Suit, Judge Says

    ROME, Ga. — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying suit seeking damages for E. coli infections contracted at the insured’s fair because the commercial general liability insurer’s infectious disease exclusion clearly bars coverage, a Georgia federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.

  • March 12, 2024

    Insured Asks 3rd Circuit To Reject Insurers’ Late-Notice Argument In Asbestos Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should reject an attempt by insurers involved in an asbestos coverage suit to rewrite New Jersey’s late-notice law, an insured says in urging the Third Circuit to reverse a district court’s ruling entered in favor of the insurers.

  • March 11, 2024

    S.C. Appeals Court Says Coverage Is Owed For Only Some Remediation Costs

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — An insured is owed coverage only for cleaning structures at its wastewater facilities that were contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) because the contamination of the affected structures constitutes direct physical loss or damage under the policy at issue, the South Carolina Court of Appeals said in partially affirming and partially reversing and remanding a master’s order.

  • March 08, 2024

    Judge Rules For CGL Insurer In Coverage Dispute With Medical Product Manufacturer

    CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge in New Hampshire granted a commercial general liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its declaratory judgment lawsuit pertaining to 10 underlying class actions alleging that its insured manufactured and marketed medical devices used to clean positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bi-level positive airway pressure (biPAP) devices that were not safe or effective, finding that the damages alleged in the class actions fail to constitute “damages because of ‘bodily injury’ or ‘property damage’” to trigger coverage.

  • March 07, 2024

    Contractor Seeks 6th Circuit’s Review Of Coverage Rulings In Wall Collapse Suit

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Less than two weeks after a building owner filed a notice of appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the contractor responsible for the building’s renovation work followed suit and filed its own notice of appeal, seeking review of a Tennessee federal judge’s ruling and judgment entered in favor of the insurer in the dispute between the building owner, contractor and insurer over coverage for the replacement of the building’s wall that fell during renovation work.

  • March 06, 2024

    Washington Judge Partly Grants Insurer’s Motion For Clarification In COVID-19 Suit

    SEATTLE —Partly granting an insurer’s motion for partial clarification or reconsideration of a Jan. 4 order denying the insurer’s motion to dismiss the University of Washington’s lawsuit seeking coverage for losses allegedly incurred by its medical and athletic properties in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a Washington judge held that the university has pleaded facts to trigger its medical centers’ policies’ communicable disease decontamination cost endorsements; its coverage claims under the athletic properties’ policies are not dismissed and its claims for coverage are not limited to the medical center policies’ time element losses due to contamination by communicable disease endorsements.

  • March 05, 2024

    Panel: No Coverage Owed For Claims Arising From Warehouse Collapse Caused By Tornado

    ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 4 affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in its lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that it had no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against underlying wrongful death and personal injury claims arising from a warehouse collapse that was caused by a tornado, finding that there is no coverage because the insured did not own, rent or occupy the warehouse when it collapsed.

  • March 05, 2024

    Insurer Owes Coverage For Suits Arising Out Of Contamination, Panel Affirms

    CHICAGO — An environmental premises insurer has a duty to defend its insured against bodily injury lawsuits arising out of an explosion caused when liquid waste in an insured trailer came into contact with an open flame because the liquid waste qualifies as a contaminant under the policy at issue, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming a district court’s ruling in favor of the insured.

  • March 05, 2024

    All Sums Allocation Method Applies In Asbestos Coverage Row, Calif. Panel Affirms

    LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling that an all sums method of allocation applies in an asbestos coverage dispute to an excess insurer’s policy based on the plain language of the insurer’s excess policy.