National Insurance Law Forum

Recent Posts from National Insurance Law Forum

• Georgia Supreme Court Clarifies Bad Faith "Safe Harbor"

  One of the more nagging problems in bad faith litigation is failure to settle cases in which more than one insurance company is involved. In such circumstances, where the insurer does not have full control…

• Massachusetts Appeals Court Limits Scope of Pollution Exclusion

  Although Massachusetts courts have generally given effect to absolute pollution exclusions, recent case law has developed an interesting distinction between claims for “clean up costs” and damages attributable to more traditional forms of property damage,…

• Massachusetts Courts Limits D&O Coverage

  A federal district court has ruled in Genzyme Corp. v. Federal Ins. Co., No. 08CV10988 (D. Mass. September 28, 2009) that a shareholder class action in which the plaintiffs alleged that Genzyme’s directors and officers…

• Ninth Circuit Addresses the Meaning of "Ice" in an All Risk Property Insurance Policy

  In Terminal Freezers Inc. v. U.S. Fire Ins., 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 20321, an unpublished opinion issued on September 11, 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals employed Washington law to examine the meaning of…

• No Coverage Under Fungus Endorsement Where Cause of Loss is Excluded

  In Marsh v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., ___ Or. App. ___, (2009), an opinion issued on October 14, 2009, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and held that…

• Federal Judge Nukes Insurer On Duty to Defend Standard

  A new federal district court opinion in Massachusetts has taken a curious twist on conventional rules governing the duty to defend. Massachusetts, like most states, imposes a duty to defend where the underlying claims present…

• To Stay or Not to Stay

  When an insurer contemplates the pros and cons of filing a declaratory relief action to determine a coverage issue, one important factor is whether the action is likely to be stayed until conclusion of the…

• Oregon District Court Finds No Coverage to Remove and Replace an Insured's Defective Work

  In Shilo Inn, Seaside Oceanfront, LLC v. Grant, et al., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75255 (D. Or. Aug. 24, 2009), the District Court of Oregon granted summary judgment to an insurer, ruling that an exclusion…

• Washington's Supreme Court Overturns Law Requiring Plaintiffs to File a Certificate of Merit in All Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

  In an opinion issued on September 17, 2009, the Washington Supreme Court struck down RCW 7.70.150, a law that requires plaintiffs to file a certificate of merit with regard to all medical malpractice lawsuits. In…

• The Washington District Court finds that the "Efficient Proximate Cause" Doctrine does not Automatically Trump Mold Exclusions when Mold is not the Efficient Proximate Cause of the Loss

  In AXIS Surplus Ins. Co., et. al v. Intracorp Real Estate, LLC, et. al., the Washington District Court, Judge Coughenour, recently ruled in favor of the Insurers on the application of Mold Exclusions irrespective of…