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August 19, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted in part and denied in part motions for summary judgment filed by a financial services company insured and its first-level excess insurer in a directors and officers coverage dispute over the insured’s defense costs associated with an underlying arbitration arising from claims that the insured recruited a broker-dealer’s employees to steal trade secret software code and proprietary information, holding that the insured is entitled to coverage for the employee arbitration because it does not relate backto a 2021 demand letter that raised concerns about the employeesto trigger the interrelated claims provision.
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August 19, 2026
TYLER, Texas — A Texas appeals panel reversed a lower court’s denial of an insurer’s motion to stay and compel arbitration in a coverage dispute arising from a worker’s injury, holding that because the plaintiff alleges that it is owed coverage as an additional insured under primary and excess policies, the policies’ arbitration clauses apply under the direct benefits estoppel theory.
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August 19, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A group of California homeowners filed a second amended complaint (SAC) in a California state court, narrowing their claims against a collection of insurers to Cartwright Act and unfair competition law (UCL) claims alleging that the insurers conspired to restrict conventional homeowners coverage and force policyholders into the California FAIR Plan, following an order that overruled the insurers’ joint demurrer to those claims but sustained with leave to amend some defendant-specific demurrers.
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August 18, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insured’s petition for rehearing of its ruling affirming a lower court’s denial of the insured’s motion for relief from a final judgment against it in a coronavirus coverage dispute, leaving intact its ruling that the North Carolina Supreme Court’s pro-coverage decision in North State Deli v. Cincinnati Ins. Co. does not prompt reopening and revising the prior judgments.
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August 18, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A cosmetic company and its commercial general liability insurer filed a stipulation in a California federal court to dismiss with prejudice the insured’s action seeking coverage for three underlying putative class action lawsuits alleging that the company deceptively sold beauty products by failing to disclose the dangerous risks and side effects of lash enhancement serums’ “key ingredient.”
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August 18, 2026
BALTIMORE — Six days after directors and officers liability insurers told a Maryland federal court that they are appealing its denial of their request for prejudgment interest after it ruled in their favor in their lawsuit challenging coverage for underlying investigations against Under Armour Inc. by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, shareholder demand letters and a securities class action, one of the insurers moved to dismiss itself from the appeal.
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August 17, 2026
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a commercial general liability insurer’s petition to reconsider the panel’s dismissal of the insurer’s appeal of a lower federal court’s declaration that it has a duty to defend a hotel operator insured against an underlying sex trafficking lawsuit, refusing to disturb its ruling that it lacks jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
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August 14, 2026
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Partly granting a request to compel production of insurance-related documents in a class action that concerns the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), an Illinois federal judge ruled after in camera review that some of the documents “are not subject to any privilege” and must be produced but others “need not be produced” because they are not relevant.
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August 13, 2026
BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s judgment in favor of an insurer in a declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking to collect the $303,592.20 default judgment that an insured was ordered to pay its former employee for pregnancy-related discrimination claims, holding that the related claims provision in the policy’s liability coverage terms and conditions (LCTC) applies to bar coverage.
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August 12, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s judgment in favor of an insurer, rejecting the appellant’s argument that the lower court erred in declining to stay the coverage dispute pending resolution of postjudgment motions in the underlying wrongful death action and in denying his motion to amend his answer to assert a counterclaim against the insurer.
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August 12, 2026
ATLANTA — A lawyer’s professional liability insurer filed an appellee brief asking the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a lower federal court’s ruling that it has no duty to defend or indemnify an attorney insured and his wife against an underlying trade secrets lawsuit, responding to the appellants’ argument that the underlying allegations trigger the insurer’s duty to defend “on their face.”
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August 11, 2026
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 10 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in its lawsuit disputing directors and officers liability coverage for underlying lawsuits seeking to collect defaulted loans from the insured’s executives, holding that the executives were not “Insured Individuals” under the policy and, therefore, the insurer did not owe coverage.
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August 11, 2026
BALTIMORE — Directors and officers liability insurers told a Maryland federal court that they are appealing its denial of their request for prejudgment interest after a ruling was entered in their favor in their lawsuit challenging coverage for underlying investigations against Under Armour Inc. by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, shareholder demand letters and a securities class action.
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August 10, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted primary and excess management liability insurers’ motion for summary judgment in an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for the $27,125,000 settlement of an underlying shareholder action asserting that the insured’s co-founder and CEO pursued private equity for personal reasons and displayed conduct that lowered the company’s sale price before an acquisition, holding that the policies’ bump-up exclusion bars coverage because the underlying settlement represented an effective increase in consideration.
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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 07, 2026
SUFFOLK, Mass. — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Aug. 7 vacated a lower court’s ruling in favor of a medical professional liability insurer in a physician insured’s lawsuit seeking a declaration as to coverage for regulatory defense costs for an underlying administrative proceeding, holding that the underlying allegations that the insured prescribed an addictive medication to a patient with whom he was in a romantic relationship constitute providing a professional service under the policy.
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August 07, 2026
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida appellate court reversed a lower court’s grant of judgment in favor of an estate in its lawsuit alleging that an insurer breached its contract by failing to defend its assisted living home insured against the estate’s underlying wrongful death lawsuit, holding that there was no claim made on behalf of the injured resident until the wrongful death action was filed in 2014, which was one year after the relevant policy expired.
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August 07, 2026
STAMFORD, Conn. — A food company insured filed a notice in a Connecticut court withdrawing its breach of contract and professional negligence lawsuit alleging that its insurance broker’s failure to recommend product recall insurance left it uninsured for a food product recall loss.
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August 06, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina appellate panel on Aug. 5 affirmed a lower court’s grant of a commercial insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying negligence action against its smoke shop owner insured arising from a fatal car accident that was caused by an intoxicated driver who inhaled nitrous oxide from a cream charger that was purchased at the insured’s shop, holding that the policy’s products-completed operations hazard (PCOH) exclusion barred coverage.
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July 24, 2026
By Douglas W. Greene, Zachary R. Taylor and Carla Caliendo
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July 29, 2026
By Nicholas M. Insua and Arnie Mascali
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August 05, 2026
NEWARK, N.J. — Prompted by a joint stipulation of dismissal, a federal judge in New Jersey dismissed with prejudice a breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking directors and officers liability coverage for an underlying action alleging that the insureds owe $435,378.93 under a credit card processing services agreement.
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August 04, 2026
DALLAS — A Texas appeals court held that a lower court correctly granted a take-nothing judgment in favor of insurers in an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking full coverage for its losses arising from a pipe rupture that caused a hydrogen chloride gas spill at its facility, holding that the insurers established the corrosion exclusion applied and the insured failed to raise a fact issue demonstrating that it suffered damages in excess of the policies’ deductible stemming from covered events that were segregated from the excluded damages.
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August 03, 2026
HARTFORD, Conn.— A federal judge in Connecticut on July 31 granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying negligence and invasion of privacy lawsuit alleging that the insured misused her clinical social worker credentials to access patient healthcare information that was in a hospital’s electronic patient database, holding that the business exclusion bars coverage.
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August 03, 2026
SOUTH BEND, Ind.— A federal judge in Indiana granted partial summary judgment in favor of a manufacturer insured on its claims for declaratory judgment and breach of contract in a lawsuit seeking coverage over underlying patent infringement claims, holding that the management liability insurer failed to demonstrate a “common nexus” between the insured’s alleged wrongful acts in the patent infringement action and a prior underlying lawsuit that would bar coverage.