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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • September 05, 2025

    Insured Appeals No Coverage Ruling For Coffee Farmers’ False Advertising Claims

    HONOLULU — An insured notified a federal court in Hawaii on Sept. 4 that it is appealing the court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a coverage dispute arising from claims that the insured falsely advertised that the coffee it sold contained 100% Kona coffee.

  • September 04, 2025

    Review Standard Is Focus Of 2nd Circuit Briefing In Appeal Of LTD Benefits Denial

    NEW YORK — Standard of review is the sole issue in a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenge to a ruling upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, with the insurer arguing in its answering brief first that it had discretionary authority under the plan and second that there are no grounds to disregard that grant because it complied with claim regulations.

  • September 04, 2025

    Parties Agree To Dismiss Contamination Coverage Suit In Pennsylvania Federal Court

    PITTSBURGH — An insurer and its insured filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in Pennsylvania federal court after agreeing to litigate the insurer’s declaratory judgment suit in Massachusetts federal court where the insured filed a similar suit seeking coverage for underlying environmental contamination lawsuits.

  • September 03, 2025

    Reinsurer Claims Guaranty Terms Are ‘Unconditional’ In Suit Dismissal Opposition

    NEW YORK — A reinsurer opposes a Florida businessman’s motion to dismiss its breach of contract suit in a New York federal court centered on a personal guaranty of a defaulted $34.4 million loan, contending that the guaranty is “absolute and unconditional” and that repayment cannot be evaded because the dismissal arguments for lack of consideration and a violation of the statute of frauds are foreclosed by the guaranty’s language.

  • September 03, 2025

    Owner Of Former MiLB Team Seeks $5.5M From National Association’s D&O Insurer

    CONCORD, N.H. — The owner and operator of a former minor league baseball team filed a lawsuit in a New Hampshire federal court alleging that the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues Inc.’s insurer breached a directors and officers liability insurance policy by failing to pay a $5,550,000 judgment awarded against its insured in an underlying breach of fiduciary lawsuit.

  • August 28, 2025

    Processor Seeks Oral Argument In Challenge To Reinsurer’s Arbitration Award

    NEW YORK — A food processing company asked a New York federal judge to schedule oral argument on its petition to vacate portions of an arbitration award granted to a reinsurer, as well as the reinsurer’s cross-motion to confirm the award, related to a poultry rendering facility fire and subsequent reinsurance dispute.

  • 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 26, 2025

    Property Owner Sues CGL Insurer In Dispute Arising From Music Video Shooting

    ATLANTA — An Atlanta property owner sued a commercial general liability insurer in a federal court in Georgia for breach of contract and declaratory relief, arguing that the insurer has a duty to pay more than $250,000 in attorney fees the property owner has incurred in defending against an underlying personal injury lawsuit arising from a shooting that occurred during the filming of a music video and that it is entitled to hire its own independent counsel at the expense of the insurer.

  • August 25, 2025

    Parties Stipulate To Dismissing LTD Case Filed Over Commission Calculations

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Without substantive explanation, an insurer and disability claimant stipulated to dismissal with prejudice of a suit in Connecticut federal court challenging the discontinuation of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, with “all parties to bear their own costs and attorneys’ fees.”

  • August 25, 2025

    Insurers Appeal Duty To Defend, Indemnify Ruling In Sex Trafficking Coverage Suit

    NORFOLK, Va. — Insurers filed a notice indicating that they are appealing a federal court’s ruling that granted an insured’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that they have no duty to defend or indemnify against a Jane Doe’s claims that she was trafficked for sex at a hotel that was owned or operated by the insured, challenging the court’s ruling that the policy unambiguously covers the conduct alleged in the underlying action.

  • August 21, 2025

    Insurer Argues Court Properly Determined Breach Of Contract Action Failed

    PHILADELPHIA — In opposing a homeowner’s motion for reconsideration of a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge’s dismissal of his amended complaint for damages he was awarded in an underlying suit against an insured contractor, an insurer argues that the magistrate properly determined that the homeowner’s breach of contract cause of action failed and that the homeowner is merely rehashing old arguments.

  • August 20, 2025

    ‘Coverage Position Is Frivolous And Unfounded,’ Insured Argues In Data Breach Suit

    GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An insured sued its insurer in a federal court in Georgia for breach of contract and bad faith seeking cyber defense coverage for putative class actions brought as a result of a 2024 data breach.

  • August 20, 2025

    LTD Recipient Amends Complaint Over IRA Rollover Offset

    BILLINGS, Mont. — Following a Montana federal court ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the long-term disability (LTD) policy at issue and preempts the previously asserted state law claims, a plaintiff who is challenging an offset that reduced his monthly benefit filed a second amended complaint making a single ERISA claim for recovery of plan benefits.

  • August 20, 2025

    Insured Sues D&O Insurer For Defense Costs Arising From Securities Fraud Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A corporation insured sued its directors and officers liability insurer in a Delaware federal court for breach of contract and seeks a declaration that the insurer must promptly reimburse it for the costs it has incurred in defending an underlying securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders.

  • August 20, 2025

    Insurer Disputes Coverage For Suit Alleging Dental Office Violated Privacy Rights

    CHICAGO — A commercial general liability and umbrella insurer filed suit in a federal court in Illinois seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify for an underlying putative class action alleging that its dental office insured violated privacy rights through its use of internet tracking that collected private information without notice and without consent, arguing that the policy exclusion for access to/disclosure of private information bars coverage.

  • August 19, 2025

    Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide Leak, Insurer Says

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An insured is not entitled to defense or indemnity for underlying lawsuits seeking damages caused by carbon monoxide exposure stemming from the faulty installation of tankless hot water heaters because the policy’s total pollution exclusion bars coverage, an insurer asserts in a complaint filed in Florida federal court.

  • August 18, 2025

    Insurer, Property Owner Seek Protective Order In Suit Over Defective Workmanship

    PHOENIX — An excess commercial insurer and an apartment complex owner asked an Arizona federal court to issue a protective order as to discovery in the insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaration that an underlying $6 million stipulated judgment arising from defective workmanship claims cannot be enforced against it.

  • 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 14, 2025

    Insured Appeals, Insurer Seeks Attorney Fees In Coverage Suit Over Fatal Shooting

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — An insured filed a notice of appeal of a Montana federal court’s finding that a liquor liability insurance policy’s Absolute Firearms Exclusion bars coverage for an underlying negligence action arising from a fatal shooting at the insured’s bar the same day the insurer moved for attorney fees incurred in the underlying action.

  • August 13, 2025

    Contractor Appeals No Coverage Ruling For Negligence Suit Over House Cleaner’s Death

    GALVESTON, Texas — A contractor insured filed a notice indicating that it is appealing a Texas federal court’s opinion that a commercial general liability insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify for an underlying negligence lawsuit brought against the insured because the underlying claims arise from an assault and battery, which resulted in the death of a house cleaner.

  • August 12, 2025

    Suit Over Airline’s LTD Plan Is Voluntarily Dismissed After Resolution Report

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A putative class complaint that a disabled pilot filed over a May 2024 plan revision that he alleged resulted in underpayment of long-term disability (LTD) benefits was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on Aug. 11 after the defendants told the Texas federal court in a dismissal motion that the pilot’s union had already gotten the issues resolved through a Railway Labor Act (RLA) dispute-resolution process.

  • August 12, 2025

    Tax Firm Asks Texas Federal Court To Compel IRS To File Administrative Record

    DALLAS — A tax consulting firm moved to compel the filing of the administrative record in its challenge to an Internal Revenue Service final rule on certain microcaptive insurance arrangements, arguing that he agency raised arguments in its dismissal motion that cannot be resolved without the record and has not provided satisfactory reason for withholding the record despite producing it in a related case involving the same rule.

  • August 08, 2025

    Carrier Seeks Dismissal Of Hurricane Coverage Row Involving Guaranty Association

    BATON ROUGE, La. — An insurance carrier participating in the U.S. government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) moved to dismiss a suit filed against it and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) by homeowners seeking coverage for purported damage to their property caused by Hurricane Ida.

  • August 08, 2025

    Homeowner Asks Court To Reconsider Dismissal Of Suit Against Contractor’s Insurer

    PHILADELPHIA — A homeowner is asking a federal court in Pennsylvania to reconsider its ruling dismissing his complaint against his contractor’s commercial general liability insurer for damages he was awarded in an underlying suit against the contractor, arguing that the court misapplied the state’s postloss assignment doctrine in determining that he lacked standing to assert a breach of contract claim against the insurer.