Texas Supreme Court Clarifies When Insured May Recover Policy Benefits
In an effort to clarify over 20 years of conflicting precedent, the Texas Supreme Court announced five rules that, according to the court, explain the relationship between claims for breach of...
View ArticleShot Through the Heart, But the Excess Carrier Isn’t to Blame: Georgia...
On June 1, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted summary judgment in favor of AIG Specialty Insurance Co. in a case involving the application of the firearms...
View ArticlePoisoning the Well: Washington Supreme Court Applies Efficient Proximate...
Professionals and practitioners in first party property insurance are likely familiar with the efficient proximate cause rule, which requires an insurance policy to provide coverage where “a covered...
View ArticlePennsylvania Supreme Court Clarifies Showing Required for Bad Faith Insurance...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has, for the first time in the 37-year history of Pennsylvania’s bad faith insurance statute, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8371, considered the necessary elements of such a claim, and it...
View ArticleDot the I’s and Cross the T’s: the Importance of Clarity in Claim...
The Georgia Court of Appeals recently made waves in Hughes v. First Acceptance Insurance Company of Georgia, Inc., 343 Ga. App. 693 (2017). First, it aggrandized the role of a jury in determining the...
View ArticleWhen Evidentiary Error Matters: Eleventh Circuit Affirms Decision to Grant...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently closed the book on litigation in which GEICO had been involved since 2010, holding that the granting of a retrial—which resulted in a GEICO...
View ArticleNevada Supreme Court Holds That Insurer’s Liability for Breach of the Duty to...
In Century Surety Company v. Dana Andrew (Dec. 13, 2018), the Nevada Supreme Court issued an opinion regarding whether, under Nevada law, the liability of an insurer that has breached its duty to...
View ArticleNo Offer, No Rejection, No Bad Faith: Georgia Supreme Court Limits Liability...
On March 11, 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court handed down an important decision in First Acceptance Insurance Company of Georgia, Inc. v. Hughes, which further clarifies the circumstances under Georgia...
View ArticleBreak Out Your Crystal Ball: New York’s First Department Relies on Policy’s...
An insured sought coverage under its commercial property insurance policy for property damage incurred after construction work was performed in an adjoining building. Contending the insurer’s...
View ArticleBack to Basics: The Georgia Court of Appeals Distinguishes Acceptance From...
The Georgia Court of Appeals recently reiterated the fundamentals of contract law within the context of insurance settlement negotiations in Yim v. Carr. In this case, the plaintiff offered to settle...
View ArticleEleventh Circuit Rejects Insurer-Defended Policyholder’s Bid to Expand...
In Cawthorn v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., No. 18-12067 (11th Cir. Oct. 25, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s grant of summary judgment in...
View ArticleSouth Carolina Supreme Court’s Quiet Erosion of Insurers’ Attorney-Client...
One decision that flew under the radar in 2019 continues the recent trend of courts to dispense, under among other things the previously discussed “at-issue” waiver doctrine, with insurers’ fundamental...
View ArticleMassachusetts High Court Upholds Consent-to-Settle Provision, Protecting...
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently heard an appeal regarding a particularly obstinate insured, ruling that recognition of a consent-to-settle provision does not in and of itself...
View ArticleMinnesota Supreme Court’s First Opinion on the State’s Bad Faith Statute
The Minnesota Supreme Court in the matter of Alison Joel Peterson v. Western National Mutual Insurance Company, 946 N.W.2d 903 (Minn. 2020) opined for the first time on the state’s bad faith statute...
View ArticleFlorida Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of First-Party Bad Faith Suit Based...
In Julien v. United Prop. & Casualty Insurance Company, 45 Fla. L. Weekly D2199 (Fla. 4th DCA Sept. 23, 2020), Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a first-party bad...
View ArticleMissouri Federal Court Finds New York Choice-of-Law Provision Does Not...
In Maritz Holdings Inc. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London, a federal court in Missouri denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss the insured’s assertion of a vexatious refusal to pay claim based on...
View ArticleFlorida Supreme Court Defines Damages Recoverable by First-Party Insureds in...
In Citizens Property Insurance Corp. v. Manor House, LLC, the Florida Supreme Court recently answered “no” to the following question certified as a matter of “great public importance”: In a first-party...
View Article“Specific” Means “Specific” – Florida’s Bad Faith Statute Must Be Strictly...
The purpose of Florida’s “bad faith” statute is to “avoid unnecessary bad faith litigation.” To that end, the statute provides a civil remedy for any person damaged by an insurer’s conduct. However, as...
View ArticleConsent to Settle: Third Circuit Reminds Insureds to Obtain Prior Written...
In a non-precedential decision, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s grant of summary judgment to an errors and omissions insurer that declined to indemnify a settlement because...
View ArticleArizona Federal Court Finds False Pretenses Exclusion Bars Coverage for...
In Helms v. Hanover Insurance Group Inc., the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona weighed in on the issue whether a professional liability policy provided insurance for a fraudulent wire...
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