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Mealey's California Insurance

  • September 04, 2025

    Calif. Federal Judge: Insurance Companies Liable For Cleanup At CERCLA Site

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge ruled that intervening insurers in a dispute over responsibility for groundwater contamination under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act at a former wood preservation plant are liable on behalf of a former operator for past and future cleanup costs in granting a state agency’s motion for partial summary judgment.

  • September 03, 2025

    9th Circuit Won’t Rehear Case Finding No Coverage For Substandard Work Claims

    PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an electrical contractor’s petition for panel rehearing in a case brought by the contractor’s commercial liability insurer where the court found that the insurer owed no coverage for an underlying action alleging that the contractor’s substandard work led to flooding damage to switchgear.

  • September 02, 2025

    Pollution Liability Insurer Has No Duty To Defend Insured, Federal Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A pollution liability insurer has no duty to defend its insured against underlying suits stemming from the insured’s environmental remediation work because the pollution conditions at issue were not unexpected or unintended as required by the policies, a California federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.

  • September 02, 2025

    Record With Settlement Info On Former MLB Pitcher’s Deal In PTD Case Is Sealed

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge agreed to seal the written record of court proceedings that contained some terms of a settlement agreement that former Major League Baseball pitcher Matthew S. Garza entered in a suit over a permanent total disability (PTD) insurance policy under which he claimed he was due a $10 million benefit.

  • August 29, 2025

    Judge: Insurer’s Application Of Aggregate Limit For Wage, Hour Claims Was Proper

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge dismissed an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit without prejudice after determining that an employment practices liability insurer did not breach the insurance contract or act in bad faith in applying the policy’s maximum aggregate limit of liability for wage and hour claims to the settlement of an underlying class action filed against the insured.

  • August 27, 2025

    Insured Says District Court’s Aggregate Limit Ruling Must Be Reversed

    SAN FRANCISCO — An umbrella liability insurer failed to explain why its insured’s interpretation of policy language pertaining to an aggregate limit is not supported, an insured says in urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court’s ruling in a dispute over coverage for environmental contamination remediation costs.

  • August 25, 2025

    Judge Denies Insurer’s Summary Judgment Motion, Stays Sexual Abuse Coverage Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit seeking rescission of an assisted living facility’s insurance policy and granted the insured’s motion to stay the coverage dispute until discovery is completed in an underlying action alleging that an elderly patient suffered sexual abuse while she was as a resident at the insured’s facility.

  • August 22, 2025

    Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Claims Will Proceed Against Homeowners Insurers

    SAN DIEGO — An insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims will proceed against homeowners insurers in a putative class action suit filed by a homeowner who claims that her insurer wrongfully refused to renew her homeowners policy because the insured sufficiently alleged facts in support of the claims, a California federal judge said.

  • August 15, 2025

    No Coverage Owed For Elder Abuse Suit, Insurer Argues In Federal Court

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An insurer filed suit in a California federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it owes no coverage for an underlying sexual battery, negligence and elder abuse lawsuit brought against its insured and its subsidiaries, arguing that the policy’s exclusions for criminal acts and assault, battery, abuse and molestation bar commercial general liability coverage and that the policy’s professional liability coverage was not triggered because the alleged abuser was not providing health care professional services at the time of the assault.

  • August 15, 2025

    Insured: 9th Circuit Wrong In Finding No Coverage For Substandard Work Claims

    PASADENA, Calif. — An electrical contractor filed a petition for panel rehearing with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that the panel was wrong to find that a commercial general liability insurer owed no coverage for an underlying action alleging that the contractor’s substandard work led to flooding damage to switchgear.

  • August 13, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Of Class Settlement, Certification Granted In RESPA Suit

    FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California preliminarily granted approval of a class action settlement and conditional class certification in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) case, authorizing class members to receive $875 in cash compensation per affected loan with an estimated gross settlement award totaling $30.5 million.

  • August 08, 2025

    Judge Reconsiders Use Of Diamond Heights In Finding Insurer Didn’t Waive Consent

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted an excess insurer’s motion for reconsideration as to the application of Diamond Heights Homeowners Association v. National American Insurance Co. in the judge’s previous decision to deny a housing developer’s motion for partial summary judgment in its case against the excess insurer for breach of contract after the homeowner reported construction defects, agreeing with the insurer that Diamond Heights doesn’t apply.

  • August 08, 2025

    Judge Finds Company Failed To Show How Subcontractor’s Drawings Caused Its Breach

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge dismissed a self-storage design and construction limited liability company’s complaint against a subcontractor’s insurer after the insurer denied coverage for claims brought against the limited liability company by a builder for damages the company alleges were caused by using the subcontractor’s drawings for the project that specified wrong materials and did not properly identify connections between the company’s structural steel and other project components, holding that the company didn’t explain how the subcontractor’s drawings caused the company’s breach of its contract with the builder.

  • August 07, 2025

    Insured’s Bad Faith Suit Against Auto Insurer Will Proceed, Federal Judge Says

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied an auto insurer’s motion to dismiss or stay an insured’s bad faith suit after determining that the bad faith claim alleged by the insured is not subject to arbitration and that a stay of the insured’s suit pending completion of the arbitration proceeding is not warranted.

  • August 06, 2025

    Magistrate Stays CGL Coverage Dispute Over Negligence Claims Against Mutual Insured

    FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California granted plaintiff and defendant commercial general liability insurers’ request to stay proceedings in a coverage dispute over underlying allegations that their mutual insured negligently conducted cyclic steaming operations to extract and harvest oil.

  • August 05, 2025

    Professional Liability Insurer: No Coverage Owed For RICO Suit Against Law Firms

    LOS ANGELES — A lawyers’ professional liability insurer filed suit in a federal court in California, seeking a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend or indemnify its law firm insureds against an underlying Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit brought by Ford Motor Co., arguing that the underlying action fails to allege an act or omission in the insureds’ performance of legal services.

  • August 05, 2025

    9th Circuit Uses Effective Vindication Doctrine In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Case

    PASADENA, Calif. — Calling the holding in the tobacco surcharge case “consistent with” decisions that five sister circuits issued in a variety of Employee Retirement Income Security Act disputes in the past few years, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 4 ruled in part that a health plan arbitration provision’s “representative action waiver violates the effective vindication doctrine and is unenforceable.”

  • August 05, 2025

    Magistrate Recommends Denying Bid For $10.88M In Insurer RICO Row With Former CEO

    FRESNO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge issued findings and recommendations advising the court to deny an insurer’s motion for default judgment and an award of $10,884,566.25 against its former CEO in the insurer’s fraud and Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit against the former CEO, finding that while the insurer has provided a declaration related to the amounts of the alleged fraud, it failed to include documentary evidence to support that declaration.

  • August 05, 2025

    Insured’s Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Suit Will Remain In Federal Court

    LOS ANGELES — An insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit stemming from a dispute over coverage for the failure of a sump pump will remain in federal court because the insurer timely removed the suit within 30 days of recognizing that the amount in controversy met the federal jurisdictional minimum requirement, a California federal judge said.

  • August 04, 2025

    Majority: Restitutionary Award Not Insurable Under California Law

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority on Aug. 4 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of a business and management indemnity insurer’s motion to dismiss a venture capital firm’s breach of contract lawsuit, agreeing with the lower court that a restitutionary award made by arbitrators is not insurable under California law.

  • August 01, 2025

    General Contractor’s Insurer Appeals Amended Judgment In Row Over Damages Coverage

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A commercial general liability insurer for a construction company filed a notice of appeal of a federal court in California’s judgment finding that another of the company’s insurers had no duty to defend the company as an additional insured in a dispute over damages to a Hard Rock Hotel location because the terms of the original contract included no requirements to maintain insurance beyond the final payment date for the project.

  • July 28, 2025

    On Remand From 9th Circuit, Judge Dismisses FCA Suit Against Drugmakers

    SAN FRANCISCO — On remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and after the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, a California federal judge dismissed without prejudice a qui tam suit accusing pharmaceutical companies of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) and related state laws by artificially inflating drug prices, finding that dismissal “is warranted” because the second amended complaint “lumps” the companies “together in an undifferentiated mass” regarding the alleged fraud.

  • July 25, 2025

    Calif. Judge Grants Commissioner’s Demurrer As To 2 Claims In Pass-Through Row

    LOS ANGELES — Holding that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara acted within his authority to issue property insurance pass-throughs but determining that exhausting administrative remedies was not necessary for judicial review, a California judge partially sustained and partially overruled Lara’s demurrer in response to a consumer research and advocacy organization’s complaint that accused Lara of issuing two unlawful insurance bulletins that authorize member insurers of the California FAIR Plan to recoup assessments from policyholders.

  • July 25, 2025

    In Advisory Opinion, DOL Tackles ERISA Question Regarding LTD Plan

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one of its first advisory opinions issued under President Donald J. Trump, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) took the view that the self-funded long-term disability (LTD) plan of a mutual benefit corporation for California firefighters “does not constitute an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — with a caveat. 

  • July 24, 2025

    California Court OKs Publishing Ruling Re Rehab Plan For Workers’ Comp Insurer

    SAN FRANCISCO — The First District California Court of Appeal on July 23 granted a request for publication of an initially unpublished opinion upholding a nonconsensual rehabilitation plan for a workers’ compensation insurance carrier; the plan was approved as part of conservation proceedings brought by California’s insurance regulator and includes options to resolve dozens of reinsurance participation agreement (RPA) lawsuits.