Supreme Court of Florida rules bad faith settlements are not collateral sources
11/27/23
By: Catherine M. Carson-Freymann
In Alberta S. Ellison v. Randy Willoughby, No. SC2021-1580, Supreme Court of Florida (November 2, 2023), the Supreme Court of Florida delivered a ruling with significant implications for insurance companies. The court determined that bad …
Church’s word, without evidence, does not support a breach of faith in Texas
11/17/23
By: Lorne G. Hiller, Katherine E. Morsman, and Marc J. Shrake
A Texas federal court did not take a church at its word that an insurer acted in bad faith, rejecting the church’s unsupported argument that the carrier …
Georgia farmer cannot dig his way out of failure to obtain UM coverage
11/14/23
By: Lee D. Whatling and Philip W. Savrin
Is uninsured/underinsured motorist (“UM”) coverage imputed to one injured on a tractor that was not specifically scheduled on the policy and that was operating on a public road when it was struck …
Ohio’s Second District holds disclosure of claims valuation to be “grossly prejudicial”
11/14/23
By: Doug Holthus and William A. Hadikusumo
The Ohio Second District Court of Appeals recently overturned a trial court’s prior discovery order which had directed that State Farm disclose certain contents of its claim file.
The underlying matter involved both …
11/7/23
By: Alexia R. Roney
Insurance policies contain “other insurance” clauses to establish the priority of coverage. Generally, these clauses boil down to “you first” where more than one policy provides coverage for the same incident. “Other insurance” clauses have evolved …
11/6/23
North River Insurance Company v. Leifer, No. 22-1009, 2023 WL 2978970 (2d Cir. Apr. 18, 2023) involved an insurance coverage dispute between The North River Insurance Company (“NRIC”) and Max D. Leifer and the Law Offices …
11/2/23
By: P. Betty Su
A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California illustrates how a choice-of-law decision by the court can sometimes make or break an insurance coverage case.
In North River Ins. Co. …
10/19/23
By: Rachel E. Hobbs
A recent decision by a federal court in California set out several important insurance concepts. In Brookfield Property Group v. Liberty Mutual, the defendant CGL insurer issued a policy to a non-party construction manager. The construction …
Everything is Bigger in Texas: Can the Duty to Indemnify Be Broader Than the Duty of Defense?
9/18/23
By: Shawn Bingham
Whoever came up with the marketing slogan “everything is bigger in Texas” was probably not thinking of insurance law. Yet, as we are reminded by a recent Fifth Circuit opinion, the phrase may, under limited circumstances, describe …
California Court Declines Reformation of Insurance Policy
9/13/23
By: Joseph Gonnella
The Motor Carriers of Property Permit Act requires certain motor carriers to maintain minimum liability coverage of $750,000 (“MCPPA” codified at Veh. Code, § 34600). Does this also require insurers to issue policies to those carriers with …
Eighth Circuit finds insurance broker caused no damage to additional insured
8/14/23
Following on the heels of the decision of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District in Santa Rosa Mall, LLC v. Aon Risk Services Central, Inc., 2023 IL App (1st) 221352, written about in this blog …
Punitive damages are now permitted to be sought in Illinois wrongful death and survival actions
8/14/23
By: Jonathan Schwartz, Kingshuk K. Roy, and Donald Patrick Eckler
On August 11, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed HB 219, which amended 740 ILCS 180/1, 740 ILCS 180/2, and 755 ILCS 5/27-6, to allow punitive damages to be recoverable …