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August 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Granting a motion for $227,348.40 in attorney fees and costs in a long-term disability (LTD) case in which the plaintiff was awarded $31,016.65, a California federal judge said in a minute in-chambers order that he “will not further reduce the recoverable fees based on Plaintiff’s partial success, especially given the intertwining nature of the successful and unsuccessful issues.”
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August 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insured’s breach of contract claim against a homeowners insurer that denied coverage for damages caused by a burglary at the insured’s home can proceed because issues of fact exist as to whether the insured complied with his obligations under the policy, a California federal judge said in partially denying the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
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August 13, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Adding an unpublished memorandum disposition to the short list of appellate rulings in disability benefits cases involving long COVID, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that a former underwriter who says he was disabled by cognitive impairments and other symptoms he attributes to long COVID “failed to meet his burden of proof” in seeking long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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August 10, 2026
LOS ANGELES —The Los Angeles Angels’ workers’ compensation and employers liability insurer sued the team’s commercial general liability insurer for equitable subrogation, equitable contribution, equitable indemnification and declaratory relief for the costs it paid in defending two underlying wrongful death and negligence actions arising from the overdose death of a professional baseball player.
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August 10, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part dismissal to physicians, a hospital and a hospitalist staffing group accused of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) and related California law by participating in a scheme of kickbacks for alleged unnecessary hospital admissions, dismissing most federal and state law claims while allowing retaliation claims against the staffing group and two of its physicians to proceed, finding that the relator adequately alleged causation, protected activity and employer knowledge for the retaliation claims against those defendants.
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August 06, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 5 vacated a federal judge’s decision granting an insured’s motion to remand her putative class action against an insurer for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) based on its alleged termination of her late husband’s life insurance policy, writing that in light of recent precedent the judge should have given the insurer an “opportunity to waive” its adequate-remedy-at-law defense before remanding due to lack of equitable jurisdiction.
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July 29, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge dismissed an insured’s counterclaims for breach of contract and bad faith against an insurer and dismissed the insurer’s cross-claim for declaratory judgment against the insured after the parties agreed to settle their dispute over insurance coverage for underlying suits related to exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allegedly contained in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) that were manufactured and sold by the insured.
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July 28, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO —An insured may state viable declaratory relief claims under excess liability insurance policies even if all of the underlying coverage has not yet been exhausted, the California Supreme Court held on July 27, reversing an appellate court’s ruling in favor of two excess insurers in a private equity management firm insured’s declaratory relief and bad faith lawsuit and remanding the professional liability coverage dispute to the appellate court.
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July 24, 2026
LOS ANGELES — After an insurer and interior designer announced that they had reached a settlement, a federal judge in California issued an order of dismissal in the insurer’s case seeking a declaration that it did not owe the interior designer a defense in an underlying action brought against the designer for negligence alleging that the designer’s improper selection of materials resulted in property damage.
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July 24, 2026
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A general contractor and an insurer filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the contractor’s complaint against the insurer for breach of contract over the insurer’s denial of the contractor’s claims for coverage and a defense in homeowners’ underlying suit against it alleging that their home incurred water intrusion.
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July 23, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Following a ruling that left only counterclaims pending in a breach of contract and bad faith suit over residual disability benefits for a neurosurgeon, the parties notified a California federal court that they “are in the process of memorializing” an undisclosed settlement.
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July 21, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on July 20 affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing lawsuit seeking coverage for theft by conversion of three African art pieces, agreeing with the lower court that the insured’s refusal to submit to an examination under oath as required by the personal articles insurance policy doomed his lawsuit.
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July 21, 2026
LOS ANGELES — In support of its argument that an interlocutory appeal is not warranted in a silica exposure coverage dispute, an insured filed a notice of supplemental authority, asking a California federal judge to take notice of a recent decision in a similar silica exposure coverage suit in which a judge denied an insurer’s motion for certification of interlocutory appeal.
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July 20, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Claiming that policies it issued to insurance intermediaries exclude claims involving the return of commissions or premiums, an insurer seeks judgment in a California federal court declaring that it has no obligation to defend or indemnify the intermediaries in litigation in which several reinsurers claim that the intermediaries improperly retained commissions and fees from premiums.
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July 14, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on July 13 reversed a judgment dismissing a lawsuit brought by an orthopedic spine surgeon accusing an insurer of interference with prospective economic relations for allegedly retaliating against him after he advocated for his patients to receive coverage for spinal surgeries.
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July 14, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appeals panel on July 13 affirmed a jury’s verdict that an insurer breached its contract, acted in bad faith and owed an insured apartment complex owner punitive damages in a coverage dispute arising from the 2017 Tubbs fire but held that the jury’s $6.5 million punitive damages award is “constitutionally excessive.”
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July 14, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insured distributor of stone products and countertops claims in a complaint filed in California federal court that its insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith by relying on its policies’ silica exclusion to deny coverage for the majority of 450 underlying bodily injury suits filed against the insured by individuals who claim that they were injured as a result of exposure to silica and other toxins in the insured’s stone products.
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July 14, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge, upon reviewing the pleadings in a removed lawsuit accusing several insurers of failing to timely pay a plastic surgery office for out-of-network costs that were approved by an arbitrator, remanded the suit sua sponte after determining that the office’s claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), purportedly based on an alleged violation of the federal No Surprises Act (NSA), does not create federal question jurisdiction.
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July 13, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California homeowner sued an insurer and its managing general agency in a California state court, alleging that they delayed and underpaid a covered plumbing loss claim, refused demolition and mitigation expenses that led to a $17,454.10 contractor suit and handled the claim under a reinsurance and profit-sharing structure that gave the agency a financial interest in reducing claim payments.
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July 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for certification for an interlocutory appeal of an order in which the judge found that silica and total pollution exclusions do not bar coverage for underlying silica bodily injury suits filed against an insured after determining that the insurer failed to show that the order presents substantial grounds for a difference of opinion.
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July 07, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court properly entered summary judgment in favor of a homeowners insurer in a water and mold damage coverage dispute because the insured failed to file suit within a year of the insurer’s denial of coverage as required by the policy’s one-year suit limitations provision, a California appellate panel said.
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July 06, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on July 2 granted in part class certification and a motion for a preliminary injunction in a putative class action against the U.S. Department of Justice and a California children’s hospital seeking to stop the DOJ from obtaining patient records related to gender-affirming care as evidence of purported violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), finding that provisional class certification and injunction apply to a specific subclass because the plaintiffs failed to establish the commonality and typicality requirements under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for the statewide class.
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July 06, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Following a bench trial, a California federal judge ruled in favor of an insurer who sought reimbursement of legal costs that an insured obtained in defending against a suit accusing him of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by posting fake Craigslist ads under a business competitor’s name purportedly seeking sexual encounters, finding that the insured’s conduct was excluded from coverage because it was willful and intentional.
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July 06, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California state judge denied a consumer research and advocacy organization’s petition for a writ of mandate challenging California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s FAIR Plan assessment pass-through bulletins, holding that the provision the advocacy group relied on governs the allocation of writings, expenses, profits and losses among FAIR Plan member insurers, not insurers’ later financial dealings with policyholders.
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July 02, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Rejecting the appellant’s reliance on an award of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits that occurred after the determination at issue, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel handed down an unpublished memorandum disposition affirming a ruling that upheld denial of a claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits.