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April 15, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs sued California Fair Plan Association (CFPA) and its “largest” members for breach of contract and bad faith in a California court, seeking compensation for their losses incurred by the January Los Angeles wildfires and to hold CFPA “accountable for its decade-long, systematic failure to properly investigate and pay wildfire claims.”
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April 15, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Skechers USA Inc. sued its commercial liability insurer in a California court for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair competition, alleging that the insurer has a duty to defend it against an underlying action contending that class members were harmed by actual physical accidents caused by the insured’s shoes’ lack of slip-resistance or by the fact that the shoes were unusable.
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April 14, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — Plaintiffs and one of their liability insurers filed in a Delaware court a stipulation and proposed order of voluntary dismissal with prejudice of all claims between them in a coverage lawsuit arising from an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars in defense costs.
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April 14, 2025
TAMPA, Fla. — An insured told Florida federal court that it is asking the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review the court’s judgment in favor of insurers in its lawsuit seeking coverage for underlying actions arising from the opioid epidemic, challenging the court’s finding that the insurers have no duty to defend or indemnify because the opioid lawsuits fail to allege damages “for bodily injury” or “because of bodily injury.”
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April 14, 2025
SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state sued its employment practices liability insurer in a Washington court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington.
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April 09, 2025
By Scott M. Seaman
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April 11, 2025
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 10 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of errors and omissions insurers, concluding that the E&O insurers have no duty to provide coverage for the loss a general liability insurer incurred when it paid a $13.3 million judgment in a wrongful death action brought against its motel owner insured.
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April 11, 2025
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — The Illinois Genetic Privacy Act (GIPA) “does not apply to the underwriting practices concerning life insurance policies,” an Illinois federal judge found, granting an insurer’s motion to dismiss a putative class claim under GIPA brought against it by a woman who claimed that she was denied a life insurance policy based on information she provided about her family’s medical history.
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April 10, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court’s ruling that a defendant insurer has to contribute $1 million in primary coverage to an underlying $9 million wrongful death settlement and affirmed the lower court’s finding that the defendant insurer’s excess coverage was not triggered, concluding that both coverages were limited to employees of Surry County, N.C., Emergency Services and did not extend to employees of Surry County's 911 call center.
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April 10, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — Three days after an insured and one of its insurers filed a stipulation asking a Delaware court to dismiss with prejudice all claims against the insurer in a professional liability coverage dispute arising from a Medicaid fraud investigation, the judge ordered the case against the insurer dismissed.
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April 09, 2025
NEWNAN, Ga. — Three days after parties filed a stipulation of dismissal, a federal judge in Georgia dismissed a commercial general liability insurer’s declaratory judgment lawsuit challenging coverage for a wrongful death/premises liability lawsuit brought against a Quality Inn & Suites.
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April 08, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted an application service provider’s motion to dismiss with prejudice insurers’ amended complaints because the insurers failed to properly assert subrogation claims seeking recovery from the provider for the amount paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack.
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April 08, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Insurers have filed a subrogation lawsuit alleging negligence and inverse condemnation against Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) in a California court, alleging that the Eaton fire could have been prevented had the defendant acted responsibly.
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April 08, 2025
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an appellant’s petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc, refusing to reconsider its finding that her declaratory judgment and bad faith claims fail because she did not provide a professional liability insurer with “all reasonably obtainable information” about her potential negligence claim against a dentist insured.
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April 07, 2025
NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted a professional liability insurer’s motion to dismiss an insured’s claims alleging breach of contract, bad faith, unjust enrichment and declaratory judgment after determining that the insured failed to identify a policy provision that was breached and failed to show that the insurer’s denial of coverage for an underlying suit related to the insured’s architectural work was unreasonable.
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April 07, 2025
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri panel affirmed in part and reversed in part an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that the court cannot hold that one of the insurers was entitled to judgment as a matter of law under its primary “all-risk” property insurance policy’s Pollution Contamination exclusion and the master policy's Mold, Mildew & Fungus Clause and Microorganism exclusion on the insured’s claims for loss of attraction coverage.
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April 03, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, as well as the Washington Legal Foundation, filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of automobile insurers, challenging a majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ conclusion that a lower court abused its discretion when it decertified a negotiation class because the insureds established that “injury could be calculated on a class-wide basis.”
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April 03, 2025
INDIANAPOLIS — Noting that the “parties report they are in the process of finalizing a formal settlement agreement,” an Indiana federal judge denied without prejudice a motion for oral argument and the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment in a suit filed by an insurer now in rehabilitation seeking a declaration that specified directors and officers (D&O) policies apply to cover claims in underlying litigation.
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April 02, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 1 distributed for conference a petition filed by the state-created Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association (JUA), which provides coverage to health care providers, including those previously insured by insurers in liquidation, seeking review of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling holding that the JUA did not have constitutional rights to challenge the constitutionality of Pennsylvania laws due to JUA’s nature as a public entity instead of a private one.
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April 02, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge affirmed a bankruptcy court’s conclusion that a claimant can continue to seek recovery from insurers for an underlying judgment that he obtained against his abuser in his lawsuit against the Boys Scouts of America and a local council, agreeing with the bankruptcy court that a trustee failed to carry the burden of demonstrating that the claimant was given notice of the Insurance Entity Injunction in the Boy Scouts of America’s third modified, fifth amended Chapter 11 reorganization plan that contemplates the creation of a settlement trust to “assume liability for all Abuse Claims.”
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April 02, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — An insured and one of its insurers filed a stipulation asking a Delaware court to dismiss with prejudice all claims against the insurer in a professional liability coverage dispute arising from a Medicaid fraud investigation.
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April 01, 2025
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin appeals panel reversed a lower court’s ruling that an insurance policy’s “worker-injury” exclusion barred coverage for an underlying negligence lawsuit arising from a construction site injury, finding that fact issues preclude summary judgment in favor of the insurer.
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April 01, 2025
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted a commercial general liability insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment and denied a firearms retailer insured’s cross-motion in a coverage dispute arising from ghost gun lawsuits after finding that the underlying actions “clearly allege” that the insured “engaged in deliberate conduct,” further denying the insured’s motion for attorney fees.
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April 01, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge determined that underlying products liability claims brought against Mattel Inc. and Fisher Price Inc. (collectively, Mattel) constituted a single “occurrence” under their tower of commercial general liability insurance policies and should be allocated by the year in which the bodily injury occurred for the policies above the primary tower level, further finding that Great American Assurance Co. has a duty to defend against claims that were allocated to 2013.
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April 01, 2025
SEATTLE — A Washington appeals court panel on March 31 held that a federally recognized Indian tribe did not state a claim that the coronavirus caused “direct physical loss or damage” to its insured properties, affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the insured’s bad faith complaint arising from the pandemic.