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Mealey's Catastrophic Loss

  • October 18, 2024

    Panel Partly Reverses Ruling In Coverage Suit Arising From Hurricanes Laura, Delta

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 17 reversed a lower federal court’s imposition of statutory penalties, attorney fees and costs in favor of a church insured in its lawsuit alleging that the insurer underpaid its losses arising from Hurricanes Laura and Delta, finding that the lower court erred when it determined that the insurer’s conduct was arbitrary and capricious and without probable cause.

  • October 18, 2024

    Contractor Appeals No Coverage Ruling In Suit Arising From Alleged Faulty Roof Work

    NEW YORK — A contractor filed a notice indicating that it is appealing a New York federal court’s ruling that adopted a magistrate’s report and recommendation in concluding that insurers owe no coverage for an underlying lawsuit that accuses the contractor and a subcontractor of faulty work on roofs in a New York City apartment complex that failed during Hurricane Sandy.

  • October 17, 2024

    Federal Judge Dismisses Philadelphia Eagles’ COVID-19 Suit Against Insurer

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 16 dismissed a lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of the Philadelphia Eagles football organization seeking a declaration as to coverage for its alleged losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the court is bound by Ungarean v. CAN & Valley Forge Ins. Co. that was recently decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

  • October 10, 2024

    9th Circuit Unseals Driver’s Brief Challenging GEICO’s ‘Unfair’ COVID-19 Rebates

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unsealed a brief filed by a driver appealing a federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on her class action claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) to GEICO for allegedly unfairly retaining an estimated $238 million in additional premium relief the driver says it owed insureds after the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • October 09, 2024

    Bound By Another Planet, Judge Reconsiders Ruling Against Insurer In COVID-19 Suit

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge on Oct. 8 granted an insurer’s motion to reconsider the court’s ruling that denied its motion for partial judgment on the pleadings in Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s breach of contract lawsuit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, dismissing with prejudice Live Nation’s claims for coverage that require a showing of physical loss or damage after concluding that the court is bound by the holding in Another Planet Entertainment, LLC v. Vigilant Insurance Co. that a “bare allegation” that “the actual or potential presence of the COVID-19 virus rendered [plaintiff's] property unusable for its intended purpose” is insufficient to demonstrate physical loss or damage to the insured property.

  • October 09, 2024

    3rd Circuit Refuses To Rehear Consolidated Appeals In COVID-19 Coverage Suits

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 8 denied insureds’ petition seeking rehearing en banc of a panel’s rejection of 14 consolidated appeals of lower federal courts’ dismissals of the insureds’ lawsuits seeking coverage for their business interruption losses caused by the coronavirus and the subsequent shutdown orders, standing by the panel’s holding that the insureds’ loss of use of their properties’ intended business purposes is not a physical loss of property to trigger business income or extra expense under their respective policies.

  • October 09, 2024

    Chemical Company: Insurer Withheld Full Value Of Business Interruption Loss

    BEAUMONT, Texas — A sustainable chemical company insured sued its insurer in a Texas federal court for breach of contract and declaratory judgment, seeking to obtain coverage for the full value of its business interruption loss caused by an explosion at a Texas plant.

  • October 09, 2024

    Settlement Conference Scheduled In Hurricane Ida Coverage Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal magistrate judge announced that a settlement conference has been scheduled for next month in a commercial property owner insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its damage caused by Hurricane Ida.

  • October 09, 2024

    Mediator: Restaurant, Insurer Settle Suit Over Looting Damage After Hurricane Maria

    ST. CROIX, Virgin Islands — A mediator filed a report in a federal court in the Virgin Islands indicating that a restaurant insured and an insurer completely resolved their dispute over the insurer’s adjustment of the insured’s property damage claim and business interruption losses arising from looting after Hurricane Maria.

  • October 08, 2024

    9th Circuit Grants Restaurants’ Motion To Dismiss Appeal In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 7 granted a motion by owners, operators and managers of two Napa Valley, Calif., restaurants to dismiss their appeal in a coronavirus coverage dispute after the California Supreme Court dismissed its consideration of the Ninth Circuit’s certified question asking whether an insurance policy’s virus exclusion is unenforceable.

  • October 03, 2024

    Texas Panel Affirms Jury Verdict In Insured’s Favor In Hurricane Harvey Dispute

    EDINBURG, Texas — A Texas appeals court panel on Oct. 3 affirmed a jury verdict in favor of an insured in its breach of contract lawsuit alleging its insurer improperly denied its claim seeking coverage for roof damage to two of its buildings that was caused by Hurricane Harvey, finding that evidence would have enabled the jury to determine that the damage to the roofs was sustained by wind or wind-created openings.

  • October 02, 2024

    English Appellate Court Rules Against Reinsurer In COVID-19 ‘Catastrophe’ Case

    LONDON — Rejecting both main arguments a reinsurer advanced in a dispute over business interruption losses, a panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Walesagreed with a lower court’s ruling that under the reinsurance agreement, the COVID-19 pandemic is a “catastrophe” and an “Hours Clause” doesn’t exclude individual losses that continue to develop more than 168 hours after they first occur.

  • September 30, 2024

    Alaska High Court Sides With ‘Overwhelming Majority’ In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    ANCHORAGE, Ala. — Finding “no reason to differ from the overwhelming majority” in answering “no” to two certified questions from an Alaska federal court, the Alaska Supreme Court held Sept. 27 that neither the presence of the coronavirus at an insured’s property nor operating restrictions that were imposed on an insured property by pandemic-prompted governmental orders constitute “direct physical loss of or damage to” the insured property to trigger coverage.

  • September 27, 2024

    Pennsylvania Supreme Court Reverses Coverage Ruling In Dentist’s Coronavirus Suit

    PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Sept. 26 held that a dental practice insured is not entitled to commercial property insurance coverage for its financial losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s nonessential business shutdown orders because its covered properties did not incur any physical loss or damage, reversing a Pennsylvania Superior Court majority’s ruling and ordering the case remanded for the trial court to enter summary judgment in favor of the insurer.

  • September 27, 2024

    No Coverage Owed For Tavern Owner, Pennsylvania High Court Rules In COVID-19 Suit

    PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a one-page order issued Sept. 26 affirmed a Pennsylvania Superior Court reversal of a lower court’s ruling in favor of a tavern owner insured in a coronavirus coverage dispute, citing the high court’s reasoning in Ungarean v. CNA, et al. that addressed the same issue on the same day.

  • September 27, 2024

    Panel Denies Insurer’s Petition For Interlocutory Appeal In Coronavirus Dispute

    DALLAS — A Texas appeals panel denied a commercial property insurer’s petition for an interlocutory appeal of a partial summary judgment order in a coronavirus coverage dispute, finding that an immediate appeal “would not materially advance the ultimate resolution of the case.”

  • September 25, 2024

    Insurers File Claims In Ship Owner’s Suit Seeking Exoneration For Bridge Collapse

    BALTIMORE — New York Marine and General Insurance Co. and Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, Axis Syndicate 1686, on Sept. 24 became the fifth and sixth insurers to file a claim and answer to a petition for exoneration from or limitation of liability filed by the owner and technical manager of the ship that allided with and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26.

  • September 25, 2024

    Judge Tosses All Claims In Hurricane Coverage Dispute With Guaranty Association

    NEW ORLEANS — “Considering” the parties’ joint dismissal motion, a Louisiana federal judge dismissed with prejudice a breach of contract suit over damages from Hurricane Ida filed against the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), which was substituted for an insolvent homeowners insurer.

  • September 25, 2024

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Breach Of Contract Claim In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York denied “all risk” insurers’ motion to dismiss a breach of contract claim in a lawsuit filed by a holding company for the U.S. interests in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group alleging the “Special Perils Provision” in an endorsement of the policies provided coverage for its $14 million in business interruption/interference losses caused by infectious or contagious diseases that were “manifested by any person within a 5-mile radius of” its four hotels in Boston, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., finding the insured plausibly alleged that its losses were covered by the endorsement.

  • September 23, 2024

    California High Court Tosses Certified Question Following COVID-19 Coverage Ruling

    SAN FRANCISCO — In light of the recent ruling in John's Grill, Inc. v. The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., the California Supreme Court dismissed its consideration of a certified question from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asking whether an insurance policy’s virus exclusion is unenforceable in a coverage lawsuit brought by owners, operators and managers of two Napa Valley, Calif., restaurants in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • September 20, 2024

    Panel Affirms Judgment In Coverage Suit Arising From Agency’s Breach Of Contract

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s finding that an excess insurer breached its duties to defend and indemnify and a primary insurer violated its Stowers duty when it did not accept a marina owner’s settlement demands in an underlying breach of contract lawsuit brought against their mutual insured.

  • September 20, 2024

    Issues Of Fact Exist On Insureds’ Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Claims

    OKLAHOMA CITY — A homeowners insurer is not entitled to summary judgment on breach of contract and bad faith claims because issues of fact exist regarding the valuation of the insureds’ claim and whether the insurer acted in bad faith in investigating and evaluating the insureds’ claim for damages caused by a storm to their home.

  • September 19, 2024

    U.S. Refutes Exoneration Petition Of Owner Of Ship That Destroyed Baltimore Bridge

    BALTIMORE — The United States of America on Sept. 18 filed a claim and answer to a petition for exoneration from or limitation of liability filed by the owner and technical manager of the ship that allided with and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, arguing that the petitioners “cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure” and “must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic harm they caused, and punitive damages should be imposed to deter such misconduct.”

  • September 19, 2024

    Judge Denies Summary Judgment On Issue Of Contamination Exclusion’s Applicability

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge refused to grant summary judgment in favor of an insured on the applicability of a policy’s contamination exclusion to losses sustained by the insured in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the evidence could support a jury finding that the insured believed that the contamination exclusion would apply as a bar to coverage for the losses caused by the coronavirus.

  • September 19, 2024

    Judge: No Coverage Owed For Suit Alleging Faulty Work On Apartment Complex Roofs

    NEW YORK — Adopting a magistrate’s report and recommendation, a federal New York judge concluded that insurers owe no coverage for an underlying lawsuit that accuses a contractor and a subcontractor of faulty work on roofs in a New York City apartment complex that failed during Hurricane Sandy.