Coverage & Claims

Subscribe to Coverage & Claims via RSS

This panel offered a history of class action litigation involving life insurance and annuity products.  According to the panelists, the class actions in the life insurance context (with the exception of ERISA suits) were virtually unheard of prior to 1993.  Throughout the mid to late 1990’s there were in the area of 300 class actions involving sales practices and misrepresentations. …
Read More Live Blog: Class Action Trial Analysis and Discussion: Plaintiff and Defense Perspectives on Recent Trials and Settlements of Life Insurance and Annuity Class Actions from ALI-ABA Conference on Insurance and Financial Services Litigation

The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota recently dismissed a directors and officers liability coverage suit, rejecting plaintiffs’ argument that an underlying suit had to be brought by the insured in his capacity as an insured in order to implicate the policy’s insured vs. insured exclusion. …
Read More Minnesota Federal Court Rejects “Capacity” Limitation As To Insured Vs. Insured Exclusion

In addition to the panel on class actions (which we blogged about here), we attended an interesting panel this morning about a less publicized outgrowth from the Madoff litigation — insurance coverage litigation.
Read More Live Blog from the Insurance and Financial Services Litigation Conference: Madoff Fallout Extends to Insurance Coverage

Several InsureReinsure.com bloggers are attending the ALI-ABA Conference on Insurance and Financial Services Litigation in Chicago.   Earlier today, one of the panels addressed recent developments in the area of class action certification, particularly in life insurance and annuities litigation. …
Read More Live Blog — ALI-ABA Conference: Class Action Developments

Citing a number of industry executives, Bloomberg recently reported that the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion – causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history – has prompted a reduction in the placement of insurance coverage for deepwater oil exploration.  According to the Bloomberg article, corporations may now need “to self-insure or exit deepwater fields.” …
Read More Update: Bloomberg Reports Sharp Decline in Offshore Oil Rig Drilling Insurance As Underwriters Tack Away From BP Disaster-Type Risk

A Connecticut District Court recently held that plaintiffs, who brought a subrogation action to recover a judgment entered in their favor in an underlying legal malpractice action against their attorneys, were entitled to litigate coverage issues even though the attorneys’ insurer obtained a default judgment against the attorneys in a separate coverage action. …
Read More Connecticut District Court: Insurer’s Default Judgment Does Not Necessarily Preclude Litigation in Subrogation Action

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia concluded that the West Virginia Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination by an insurer in the settlement of a property claim. …
Read More West Virginia Human Rights Act Prohibits Discrimination by Insurer in the Settlement of Property Claim

Texas Farmers Insurance Company (“Texas Farmers”) issued claims-made insurance policies (transformed into occurrence-based policies through endorsement) to Kaiser Permanente, a medical facility, for the policy periods of 4/9/99-4/9/00, 4/9/00-4/9/01, and 4/9/01-4/9/02.  The first two policies had a $5 million limit of liability per claim. …
Read More Ninth Circuit Affirms Ruling That Reinsurer Has No Duty to Contribute to Settlement Payment Where Reinsured Excess Policy Was Not Triggered

The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently reaffirmed that jurisdiction’s broad understanding of a general liability carrier’s duty to defend, holding that an insurer had a duty to defend against a claim of trespass first asserted after the expiration of its policy period. …
Read More Massachusetts Court Reaffirms General Liability Insurers’ Broad Duty to Defend