Mealey's Catastrophic Loss : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Catastrophic Loss

March 19, 2025
Judge Dismisses Suit Against GEICO After Parties File Joint Notice Of Dismissal

CHICAGO — The same day the parties filed a joint notice of dismissal, an Illinois federal judge dismissed with prejudice insureds’ lawsuit alleging that auto insurers violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by charging “excessive” premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic that failed to account for a dramatic reduction in driving.
March 18, 2025
Insurer Seeks Take-Nothing Judgment After Jury Awards Insured $39.9M In Storm Suit

TYLER, Texas — A commercial property insurer moved for full judgment as a matter of law and alternatively a new trial after a jury in a Texas federal court unanimously awarded its insured $4,838,747 in damages for its breach of contract and $35 million in exemplary damages for its breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing in a coverage dispute arising from property damage that was caused by an April 12, 2020, wind and hailstorm.
March 13, 2025
Judge: N.Y. Law Governs Insured’s Coverage Suit Arising From Hurricane Ida Damage

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York concluded that under the state’s choice-of-law rules, a property insurance policy’s choice-of-law clause is valid and, as a result, New York law governs an insured’s declaratory judgment, breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for property damage to its Louisiana restaurant and warehouse that was caused by Hurricane Ida.
March 12, 2025
Victims Of Taliban Attack Cannot Use Bank’s Assets To Satisfy $138M Judgment

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that because a bank account is no longer a “blocked asset” under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, plaintiffs cannot use the bank’s assets to satisfy their $138,418,741 default judgment arising from a 2016 Taliban attack, affirming a lower federal court’s ruling that granted a Ukrainian governmental entity’s motion to intervene and vacated a writ of execution.
March 12, 2025
Split Louisiana Appeals Court Affirms Denial In Guaranty Association Coverage Row

NEW ORLEANS — A split Louisiana appellate court on March 11 granted the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association’s (LIGA) application for supervisory writ seeking review of a lower court ruling denying LIGA’s exception of prescription in homeowners’ insurance coverage dispute over purported damages from Hurricane Ida but denied relief, finding that the lower court correctly denied LIGA’s exception of prescription because “the order of insolvency triggered the relevant prescriptive period.”
March 11, 2025
Insured’s Water Damage Suit Properly Dismissed For Lack Of Ripeness, Panel Says

PASADENA, Calif. — A district court properly dismissed an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit stemming from a water damage coverage dispute because the insured’s claims are not ripe based on a petition filed by the property insurer in Rhode Island state court to appoint an umpire to conduct an appraisal proceeding, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming the lower court’s ruling.
March 10, 2025
COMMENTARY: Sustainability Recalibration: What Insurers And Policyholders Should Know About ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Considerations) Under Trump 2.0, Part 2

By Scott M. Seaman
March 10, 2025
5th Circuit Reverses Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Suit Arising From Rainstorm

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 7 reversed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a homeowners insurer as to the proper allocation of the burden of proof relative to causation, vacated the dismissal of insureds’ breach of contract claim and remanded the coverage dispute arising from roof damage following a Greenwood, Miss., rainstorm.
March 10, 2025
Iowa High Court Affirms Ruling In Favor Of Insurer In School District’s Lawsuit

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court on March 7 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of a commercial property insurer, finding that under the plain language of unambiguous exception to the insurance policy’s “ordinance and law” provision, the insurer must pay only to repair the insured’s school building damage caused by a partial roof collapse following a snow storm but does not have to pay the cost to remedy the longstanding deterioration in other areas of the school building that were unaffected by the collapse.
March 10, 2025
Magistrate Dismisses Bad Faith Suit Over Hurricane Irma Damage After Parties Settle

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida signed an order of dismissal one day after a condominium insured voluntary dismissed with prejudice its bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for property damage caused by Hurricane Irma.
March 07, 2025
Judge: Insurer Timely Filed Motion For Attorney Fees In Hurricane Sally Suit

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida granted a commercial property insurer’s motion for attorney fees after granting its motion for summary judgment in a coverage dispute arising from Hurricane Sally property damage, rejecting the insured’s argument that the motion for attorney fees was untimely.
March 07, 2025
Contractor Has Standing To Seek Reformation Of Policy, 11th Circuit Rules

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a general contractor has Article III standing to seek reformation of an insurance policy and a lower court erred in dismissing the reformation counterclaim but affirmed the lower court’s ruling that a commercial general liability insurance policy’s course-of-construction exclusion (COCE) bars coverage for water damage in a suit stemming from the subcontractor’s alleged faulty installation of cladding and glazing systems in a construction job.
March 06, 2025
Judge Grants Judgment For Insurers In Condominium Attorney Fee Dispute

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted summary judgment for insurers as to a condominium association’s claim for attorney fees in a breach of contract suit filed against insurers over their failure to cover a condominium’s hurricane-related losses, finding that because New York law applies and lacks a provision justifying attorney fee recovery, the claim for attorney fees under Florida law fails.
March 06, 2025
Baylor College Of Medicine Seeks Texas High Court Review Of COVID-19 Coverage Suit

AUSTIN, Texas — Baylor College of Medicine filed a petition in the Texas Supreme Court seeking review of an appeals court’s conclusion that the presence of the COVID-19 virus at its premises did not cause “direct physical loss of or damage to” to its property, challenging the appeals court’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment following a jury verdict in the school’s favor.
March 04, 2025
COMMENTARY: Sustainability Recalibration: What Insurers And Policyholders Should Know About ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Considerations) Under Trump 2.0, Part 1

By Scott M. Seaman
February 27, 2025
Petitioners In Baltimore Bridge Collapse Suit Ordered To Be Deposed In U.S.

BALTIMORE — A federal chief magistrate judge in Maryland on Feb. 26 granted claimants’ motion to compel petitioners and their management agents and employees to submit to depositions in a Maryland federal court in an exoneration lawsuit brought by the owner and technical manager of the ship that allided with and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
February 27, 2025
Florida Panel Reverses Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Hurricane Coverage Suit

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida appeals panel on Feb. 26 concluded that Florida Statutes Section 624.1551 cannot be applied retroactively to an insured’s bad faith lawsuit seeking extracontractual damages from her insurer, reversing a lower court’s judgment in favor of the insurer and remanding with directions to deny the insurer’s motion to dismiss and reinstate the coverage lawsuit over hurricane damage.
February 26, 2025
Judge Dismisses Hospital’s $2.5M D&O Coverage Suit Over DOJ, AG Investigations

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss a hospital insured’s breach of contract lawsuit, finding that the insurer’s liability is capped by the Regulatory Claim Endorsement’s $1 million sublimit and that the hospital failed to allege that the insurer breached its duty to pay for its $2.5 million in remaining defense expenses arising from underlying criminal federal and state investigations into the hospital’s employees and officers.
February 25, 2025
Louisiana High Court Refuses To Review Ruling In Hurricane Ida Coverage Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court on Feb. 25 denied an insured’s application for writ of certiorari seeking review of a First Circuit Louisiana Court of Appeal panel majority’s holding that a lower court properly interpreted the state Legislature's amendment of Louisiana Revised Statutes Section 22:1892(H) by Act 290 to be a procedural change that applied retroactively and, as a result, eliminated any class action for damages, including bad faith penalties, brought against the state’s insurer of last resort.
February 25, 2025
Florida Panel Affirms Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

MIAMI — A Florida appeals panel on Feb. 19 affirmed a lower court’s judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage for its business interruption losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, concluding that nothing in the record supports the insured’s contention that the governmental shutdown orders “were issued ‘due to’ specific conditions at the premises of the Insured.”
February 25, 2025
Insurer Disputes Contention That ‘Windstorm’ Is Ambiguous In Tornado Coverage Suit

AUSTIN, Texas — Replying to insureds’ response to its petition for review asking the Texas Supreme Court to review a Texas appellate court majority’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment against the insureds in a coverage dispute arising from tornado damage, a homeowners insurer asserts that the insureds’ contention that “windstorm” is ambiguous “can be true only for those unfamiliar with English grammar, plain language, and precedent.”
February 24, 2025
Insurers Ask Supreme Court To Decide Whether Tribal Court Can Exercise Jurisdiction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied insurers’ petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc asking it to reconsider its opinion that affirmed a federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land, the insurers filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine “whether a tribal court can exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers of the tribe based on off-reservation conduct.”
February 21, 2025
Florida Panel: No Coverage Owed For Insured’s Untimely Tropical Storm Eta Claim

MIAMI — A Florida appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for his property damage caused by Tropical Storm Eta, concluding that the lower court did not err when it ruled that the insured did not rebut the presumption of prejudice from his untimely claim.
February 13, 2025
COMMENTARY: The Top Twelve Insurance Coverage Decisions Of 2024

By Robert D. Chesler, Seán McCabe, Madilynne Lee and James A. Goodridge
February 12, 2025
Panel Reverses Attorney Fees Award In Octogenarian’s Bad Faith Suit Over Hail Damage

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas appeals panel reversed and remanded a trial court’s award of appellate attorney fees in favor of an octogenarian insured in her bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for her roof damage caused by hail and wind and affirmed the remainder of the lower court’s judgment, finding that the evidence was sufficiently strong to support the jury's conclusion that the insurer knowingly took advantage of the insured’s “‘lack of knowledge, ability, experience, or capacity . . . to a grossly unfair degree.’”