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September 25, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 24 affirmed a district court’s ruling that a pollution liability insurer has no duty to defend its insured against underlying suits stemming from the insured’s environmental remediation work, agreeing with the lower court that the pollution conditions at issue were not unexpected or unintended as required by the policies.
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September 25, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A limited liability company has appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a federal judge in California’s rulings that disposed of its bad faith and related claims against its insurer and limited its recovery of prejudgment interest in a dispute over coverage for water damage to an apartment building.
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September 24, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted an insurer’s motion seeking prejudgment interest after granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its case against a concrete supplier seeking a declaration that it did not have a duty to indemnify the supplier in an underlying action over defective concrete.
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September 23, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer filed an answering brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asking it to affirm a federal judge in California’s ruling that the insurer had no duty to defend or indemnify an additional insured for the amount the additional insured paid to resolve a third party’s presuit claims, arguing that the policies required that a suit be filed against the additional insured for those duties to be triggered.
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September 22, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insurer filed a motion for reconsideration in California federal court, arguing that reconsideration of the denial of the insurer’s motion for certification of interlocutory appeal is warranted based on another California federal judge’s recent decisions certifying interlocutory appeals in similar silica exposure coverage suits.
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September 22, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Insureds who owned, operated and managed an apartment complex are not entitled to a defense or indemnity for an underlying wrongful death suit stemming from a tenant’s death caused by exposure to mold and mold spores in a rental apartment because the policies’ fungi or bacteria exclusions and pollution exclusions bar coverage, the insurers say in a California state court complaint.
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September 22, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge determined that breach of contract and bad faith claims alleged against the parent company of an insurer can proceed in a wildfire coverage damage suit because the insureds alleged sufficient facts to show that the insurer and its parent company share a unity of interest and ownership.
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September 22, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An assignee notified a California federal court that he is appealing the court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a business and management liability insurer on his claims for breach of contract, bad faith and punitive damages in a directors and officers liability coverage dispute over an underlying lawsuit alleging breaches of fiduciary duties against the insured’s directors.
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September 17, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — After upholding denial of the long-term disability (LTD) the claim of an account executive who argued that conditions including tinnitus and anxiety rendered him disabled, a California federal judge entered judgment against the claimant on Sept. 16; reviewing the denial de novo, the judge said in part that it rested on the claimant’s “failure to demonstrate that the diagnoses resulted in a disability that prevented him from working in his Own Occupation.”
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September 16, 2026
PASADENA, Calif.— The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s breach of contract, bad faith, unfair competition and declaratory relief lawsuit, holding that the insurer has no duty to defend against an underlying negligence lawsuit arising from sexual assault and harassment because it was brought after the policy’s coverage and extended reporting periods expired.
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September 16, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California state judge granted summary judgment to a school district risk pool and rejected a reinsurer’s attempt to avoid coverage liability for sexual abuse that occurred outside an agreed coverage period, holding that the governing agreements treat multiple victims of the same perpetrator as part of a single “‘occurrence’” arising at the time of the first abuse, despite the reinsurer’s arguments that each victim constituted a separate “‘occurrence’” and that the later abuse fell outside the policy period.
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September 14, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted an unopposed motion to vacate court filings and hearings following the primary insurers’ settlement with their insured in a coverage dispute stemming from the seizure of the insured’s crude oil tanker by Iranian military forces.
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September 10, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif.— A federal judge in California granted a write-your-own (WYO) insurer’s motion to dismiss insureds’ second amended complaint seeking $12,500 in additional coverage for their alleged “structural damage” arising from a 2023 flood, holding that dismissal was proper under the insureds’ Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP) because the lawsuit was filed more than a year after the claim was denied.
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September 09, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A commercial general liability (CGL) insurer filed a complaint in California federal court seeking to rescind a CGL policy issued to a company operating an apartment building, asserting that the company made material misrepresentations in the policy application regarding the absence of fire or safety code violations and loss history.
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September 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted an additional two motions for certification of interlocutory appeals filed by insurers in two silica exposure coverage suits after again determining that a “substantial ground for difference of opinion” exists under California law between the concurrent causation doctrine and anti-concurrent causation clauses used in the insurers’ policies.
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September 02, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insurer has a duty to defend its insured against an underlying personal injury suit stemming from a claimant’s exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas because the insurer failed to show that the pollution exclusion in its policy applies as a bar to coverage, a California federal judge said in partially granting the insured’s motion for summary judgment.
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September 02, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Three lawsuits were filed in a California court against State Farm General Insurance Co. within a span of three weeks, all alleging breach of contract and accusing the insurer of mishandling insurance claims arising from the Palisades and Eaton wildfires.
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September 01, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The people of California on Aug. 31 filed a civil enforcement action against insurers in a state court to address the insurers’ alleged “systematic, willful and widespread violations” of state consumer protection laws related to their advertising and sale of homeowners insurance policies and their handling of claims arising from the Jan. 7, 2025, Eaton and Palisades wildfires in Los Angeles County.
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September 01, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on Aug. 31 granted a motion to transfer a suit filed by two insurers seeking equitable contribution from a third insurer for costs related to underlying asbestos personal injury claims filed against an insured after determining that Ohio, where the third insurer filed a declaratory judgment suit, is the more convenient venue for the parties and witnesses.
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September 01, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A consumer research and advocacy organization appealed a California state court ruling denying its petition for a writ of mandate challenging Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s FAIR Plan assessment pass-through bulletins, which the court held did not violate a statute governing the allocation of writings, expenses, profits and losses among FAIR Plan member insurers because the statute does not regulate insurers’ subsequent financial dealings with policyholders.
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September 01, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted motions for certification of interlocutory appeal filed by insurers in two separate silica exposure coverage suits after determining that a substantial ground for difference of opinion exists under California law between the concurrent causation doctrine and anti-concurrent causation clauses used in the insurers’ policies.
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August 31, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Skirting “thorny choice-of-law issues” but expressing doubt that a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “can tell its insured that no state law applies to him,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion affirming denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on the grounds that the claimant “was not totally disabled” even under de novo review.
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August 27, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate court panel on Aug. 26 affirmed the dismissal of a homeowner’s third amended complaint accusing her insurer of failure to properly investigate a claim in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the latest appeal in the long-running case, which was remanded to the trial court after the California Supreme Court deemed the claims not time-barred, is “woefully inadequate” and violates the appellate court’s rules.
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August 25, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court denied an insured’s petition seeking a rehearing of a panel’s ruling that affirmed summary judgment in favor of an insurer in the 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, refusing to disturb the panel’s finding 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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August 21, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Saying in part that “the relevant position for the disability analysis under the ‘any occupation’ standard is an executive-level sales management position or a comparable position,” a California federal judge ruled that an insurer wrongly terminated long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a claimant she concluded was disabled due to “cognitive deficits caused by her asymmetric hearing loss.”