Mealey's Emerging Insurance Disputes : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Emerging Insurance Disputes

May 27, 2025
U.S. High Court Refuses To Review Dismissal Of Insurer’s Claims Against Law Firm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 denied a professional liability insurer’s petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of a Montana Supreme Court’s ruling that affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of its third-party complaint alleging legal malpractice against a now bankrupt law firm and two attorneys who represented its insured in an underlying class action, leaving undisturbed the Montana Supreme Court’s holding that the insurer failed to establish the existence of personal jurisdiction over the attorneys and firm.
May 23, 2025
Insurer Disputes Coverage For Suit Arising From Super Bowl Parade Shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A commercial general liability insurer filed a first amended complaint in a Missouri federal court seeking a declaration that it has no duty to provide coverage for an underlying lawsuit alleging The Greater Kansas City Sports Commission did not implement adequate security measures to protect the thousands of attendees at the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade, asserting that the policy’s assault and battery exclusion bars coverage.
May 22, 2025
Contamination Exclusion Bars Coverage For COVID-19 Losses, Texas Panel Says

AUSTIN, Texas — A contamination exclusion bars coverage for an insured’s claim seeking coverage for damages and losses incurred as a result of the coronavirus because the exclusion is not ambiguous and clearly includes viruses in its definition of contamination, the Third District Texas Court of Appeals said May 22 in affirming a trial court’s judgment in favor of the insurers.
May 21, 2025
Insurer Challenges 7th Circuit Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — A commercial liability seeks rehearing of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that vacated and remanded a lower court’s ruling in its favor in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that a food ingredient manufacturer insured violated the Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), asking the appeals court to amend and correct its opinion to omit any reference to an underlying settlement and omit its conclusion that the insurer will have a duty to indemnify under a 2015 insurance policy if the insured’s notice of the underlying claim was timely.
May 21, 2025
Insured’s Assignee Brings Bad Faith Suit Seeking To Recover $3.2M Consent Judgment

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A horse stable owner insured’s assignee sued an insurer for bad faith in a Florida federal court, seeking to recover an underlying $3.2 million consent judgment arising from the settlement of an underlying fraud lawsuit.
May 21, 2025
Majority’s Opinion Rewrites Bad Faith Law In Florida, Insurer Argues To 11th Circuit

ATLANTA — An insurer filed a petition seeking rehearing of an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority’s reversal of a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in its favor in an insured’s lawsuit alleging that it acted in bad faith when it failed to make a settlement offer in an estate’s allegations of negligent security against the insured, contending that the “majority’s opinion rewrites Florida bad faith law.”
May 21, 2025
Clinic Insured, Assignee Appeal Ruling In Favor Of Professional Liability Insurer

SALT LAKE CITY — A clinic insured and its assignee filed a notice indicating they are appealing a Utah federal judge’s ruling that granted a professional liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the remaining bad faith claim in a coverage dispute arising from a medical malpractice lawsuit.
May 20, 2025
U.S. High Court Refuses To Review Insurers’ Petition In Tribal Jurisdiction Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 denied insurers’ petition for a writ of certiorari asking it to determine “whether a tribal court can exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers of the tribe based on off-reservation conduct,” leaving undisturbed a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ opinion that affirmed a federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land.
May 20, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Insurer’s Challenge To Ruling In Favor Of Tribal Court Judges

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 declined an insurer’s invitation to review a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ holding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over it in a dispute over the tribe’s claims for business interruption losses at its casino caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, refusing to review the appeals court’s ruling that affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of two tribal court judges on the alternative ground that the insurance policy at issue satisfies Montana v. United States’ consensual-relationship exception.
May 20, 2025
Judge Rules On Cross-Motions For Summary Judgment In Painter Injury Coverage Suit

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge granted in part and denied in part an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify against underlying claims arising from a painter’s injury and denied one of the defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment, finding that the cross liability exclusion bars coverage for some of the claims.
May 19, 2025
Delaware Court Asked To Dismiss Primary, Excess Insurer From D&O Coverage Dispute

WILMINGTON, Del. — An insured and its primary and excess insurers filed a stipulation asking a Delaware court to dismissed the two insurers from the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking directors and officers and entity securities liability insurance coverage for an underlying appraisal action, indicating that a settlement has been reached between them.
May 16, 2025
CGL Insurer Fails To Support Piercing Of Corporate Veil Claim, 2nd Circuit Affirms

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 16 affirmed a lower federal court’s finding that a commercial general liability insurer failed to establish facts supporting its quest to pierce a construction company insured’s corporate veil in connection with its breach of contract lawsuit seeking to hold the insured’s owners and officers liable for the alleged $1,247,950.03 in policy premiums, taxes and fees that the insured failed to pay.
May 16, 2025
Professional Liability Insurer’s Defense Withdrawal Was Not Breach Of Contract

PHILADELPHIA — A professional liability insurer did not breach its contract or act in bad faith in withdrawing its defense of an insured in an underlying wrongful death suit because the policy clearly precludes coverage as the underlying claims arose out of the actions of a doctor who is specifically excluded from coverage under the policy, a Pennsylvania federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion to dismiss.
May 15, 2025
Special Master Imposes $31,100 In Costs After Attorneys’ AI Briefing Errors

LOS ANGELES — Two firms for plaintiffs in a bad faith insurance suit must pay $26,100 in special master fees and another $5,000 for defense costs after submitting an artificial intelligence-assisted supplemental brief with nine erroneous cites across 10 pages, a special master appointed in a federal court in California said while striking the brief and denying the plaintiffs any requested discovery relief.
May 14, 2025
Majority Rejects Abuse Claimants’ Invitation To Throw Out BSA Reorganization Plan

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority on May 13 dismissed two sets of abuse claimants’ appeals seeking to reverse a lower federal court’s confirmation order that affirmed the Boy Scouts of America’s third modified fifth amended Chapter 11 reorganization plan, which contemplates the creation of a settlement trust to “assume liability for all Abuse Claims,” and the concurring judge said she sees “not only error, but mischief, in the majority's approach.”
May 14, 2025
Justice Rules For Professional Liability Insurer In Legal Malpractice Coverage Suit

BOSTON — A Massachusetts justice granted a professional liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit seeking a declaration as to coverage for an underlying legal malpractice action brought against an attorney and his law firm, finding that the insureds “had a reasonable basis to foresee the malpractice claim prior to the applicable policy period.”
May 14, 2025
California Panel Reverses, Remands Ruling On Insurer’s Fraudulent Concealment Claim

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court panel reversed a lower court’s ruling as to a plaintiff insurer’s fraudulent concealment claim against a defendant insurer in a coverage dispute over underlying claims that their mutual insured manufactured defective air respirators and masks that did not protect against inhaling silica, asbestos and mixed dust, remanding for a new trial on the fraudulent concealment claim.
May 14, 2025
Nonprofit Firm Files Amicus Brief In High Court In Underwriting Association Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nonprofit, public interest law firm the New England Legal Foundation (NELF) filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the state-created Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association (JUA), which provides coverage to health care providers, including those previously insured by insurers in liquidation, and is seeking review of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling holding that the JUA did not have constitutional rights to challenge the constitutionality of Pennsylvania laws due to JUA’s nature as a public entity instead of a private one.
May 13, 2025
Michigan Majority Reverses No Coverage Ruling In Suit Arising From Shooting Injury

DETROIT — A majority of the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s grant of summary disposition in favor of a homeowners insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying negligence lawsuit arising from a shooting injury, holding that the lower court erred in determining that the underlying injury does not amount to an occurrence to trigger coverage under the policy.
May 13, 2025
Evenflo Seeks Rehearing Of 6th Circuit’s Ruling In Product Liability Coverage Suit

CINCINNATI — The same day the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a joint motion to redact portions of an April 25 opinion in a coverage dispute over product liability settlements, the insured filed a petition for rehearing under seal challenging the lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the insurer.
May 13, 2025
Insurer Appeals Dismissal Of Subrogation Claims In Suit Over Ransomware Attack

WILMINGTON, Del. — An insurer filed a notice indicating it is appealing a Delaware judge’s grant of an application service provider’s motion to dismiss with prejudice its amended complaint, challenging the judge’s finding that it failed to properly assert subrogation claims seeking recovery from the provider for the amount paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack.
May 13, 2025
Bad Faith, Breach Of Contract Claims Permitted Against Excess Insurers, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — An insured seeking coverage for the seizure of its crude oil tanker by Iranian military forces is permitted to amend and supplement a counterclaim against its excess insurers to assert claims for breach of contract and bad faith because good cause for the amendment exists based on the excess insurers’ belated production of discovery documents, a California federal judge said in granting the insured’s motion to amend and supplement its counterclaim.
May 13, 2025
Judge: Reinsurance Info Is Relevant In Cyberattack Coverage Lawsuit

BALTIMORE — A media company that sued excess insurers it alleges owe millions in connection with an October 2021 cyberattack has obtained a mixed ruling on discovery disputes, with a Maryland federal magistrate judge concluding in part that “reinsurance policies, as well as related documents and communications, are relevant to [the plaintiff’s] bad faith claim and should be produced.”
May 12, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Suit Prompted By SEC Investigation

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 9 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in an insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its underlying expenses arising from a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation, finding the insured failed to produce evidence that the SEC's investigation and the insured’s ensuing litigation costs “grew out of, flowed from, or bore any causal relationship to the SEC's notice of its intent to depose” one of the insured’s directors.
May 12, 2025
Pennsylvania Court Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Suit Arising From Coronavirus

PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of commercial property insurers in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, concluding that the insured failed to establish that it incurred “direct physical loss or damage to any of its properties” to trigger coverage.