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August 28, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal magistrate judge in Ohio on Aug. 27 denied an insurer and its insureds’ joint motion to stay discovery deadlines pending their mediation of the insurer’s declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing employment practices liability coverage for an underlying civil lawsuit and a charge of employment discrimination arising from the sexual harassment of its insureds’ minor employee, holding that the parties’ mediation efforts do not preclude them from concurrently proceeding with discovery.
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August 28, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of a joint insurance fund and denied summary judgment to a commercial auto insurer in a dispute stemming from a multimillion-dollar settlement of a personal injury lawsuit involving a municipally owned ambulance, holding that the commercial insurer’s $1 million commercial auto policy and $3 million excess liability policy must be exhausted before public funds available through the joint insurance fund may be used to satisfy the settlement.
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August 27, 2026
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill . — A federal judge in Illinois granted in part an insurer’s motion for default judgment against a nursing home insured and a doctor in a professional and general liability coverage dispute arising from a wrongful death and survival action, finding that the insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify because the underlying lawsuit was filed five days after the insurance policy expired.
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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 26, 2026
BOSTON —The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of an insured’s breach of contract, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against an insurance broker that arose from the insured’s allegations that the broker failed to procure adequate liability insurance to cover underlying claims arising from an accident involving the insured’s boat.
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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 25, 2026
FLINT, Mich. — A federal judge in Michigan vacated an order for an attorney to show cause why he should not be sanctioned under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)(2) & (c) for “apparently misrepresenting the holdings of various cases, possibly in reliance on AI-generated content,” finding that the attorney took the appropriate action to satisfy the show cause order in a coverage dispute arising from the death of a minor who was receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the insured’s facility.
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August 21, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California granted a commercial general liability insurer’s motion to dismiss a bar insured’s claims for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and declaratory relief seeking coverage for underlying negligence and premises liability claims, holding that the underlying alleged emotional injuries are not “bodily injuries” to create a potential for coverage under the policy.
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August 21, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted a business and management liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment on an assignee’s 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, holding that the policy’s Insured v. Insured Exclusion relieved the insurer of its duty to defend and indemnify.
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August 20, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 19 dismissed as moot a professional liability insurer’s appeal of a lower federal court’s grant of an insured’s motion to stay the insurer’s declaratory judgment lawsuit pending the outcome of a parallel state court proceeding, holding that because there is a final judgment in the parallel proceeding, the federal court’s stay in the present action has expired by its own terms.
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August 20, 2026
CHICAGO — Plaintiffs in a federal court in Illinois defended a motion to amend their complaint alleging that their insurer’s use of artificial intelligence subjected minorities to additional scrutiny, saying discovery produced additional data supporting the allegations.
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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.