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April 06, 2026
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A South Dakota federal judge granted an auto insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment on its insureds’ bad faith claims after determining that the insurer’s decision to increase its reserves for the insureds’ claims and the insurer’s valuation of the insureds’ noneconomic damages are not evidence that the insurer acted unreasonably.
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April 03, 2026
SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal judge ruled, in denying a motion to compel appraisal, that an insurer’s request for an appraisal following unsuccessful mediation in a dispute with an elderly woman over a water damage claim was “unreasonably delayed” given that it was filed 22 months after the woman filed her claim and 10 months after she filed a federal lawsuit alleging breach of contract, bad faith, violations of the state insurance code and more.
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April 02, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana granted a write-your-own insurer’s unopposed motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal of an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit, holding that the insured’s failure to comply with the Standard Flood Insurance Policy’s mandatory requirements “dooms” the insured’s supplemental claim for flood damage caused by Hurricane Irma.
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April 02, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of an insurer’s suit seeking a declaration that it did not owe coverage beyond the $25,000 policy limits to its insured, who was involved in an auto accident, ruling that the lower court was correct in finding that the insurer’s alleged bad faith liability regarding past conduct, which relates to a separate bad faith suit, “was more properly considered in the bad faith action.”
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April 02, 2026
SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an auto insurer after determining that the insurer did not breach its contract or act in bad faith because it attempted to settle with the claimants who were injured in an auto accident caused by an insured.
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April 02, 2026
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge deferred ruling on an auto insurer’s motion for summary judgment and stayed the third-party claimant’s bad faith suit against the insurer after determining that the third-party claimant must notify the trustee of the insured’s bankruptcy estate of the bad faith claim and allow the trustee to determine whether the bad faith claim will be pursued.
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March 31, 2026
HOUSTON — An additional insured is not entitled to coverage for business interruption losses caused by quarantine orders issued in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the commercial property policy’s pollution and contamination exclusion bars coverage, the 14th Texas Court of Appeals said March 31 in affirming a trial court’s ruling in favor of the insurer on breach of contract and extracontractual claims.
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March 31, 2026
NEW YORK — A contractor’s pollution liability insurer has no duty to provide coverage for an underlying asbestos contamination damages suit filed against an insured because the contamination occurred at a subcontractor’s facility and is therefore barred by the policy’s owned property exclusion, a New York justice said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims.
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March 27, 2026
DALLAS — The insurer and the insured in a federal lawsuit alleging bad faith, breach of contract and other claims in a dispute over whether damage to the roofs of two Texas buildings was caused by a 2021 hailstorm agreed in a March 26 notice “to have a magistrate judge conduct a settlement conference or mediation” for the case, taking up a judge’s offer that was included in an opinion denying a motion for summary judgment and motions to exclude and strike expert opinions and testimony.
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March 27, 2026
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge awarded $60,605 in attorney fees to a life insurer in a declaratory judgment suit seeking to void a $750,000 life insurance policy after the insurer paid death benefits to the beneficiary, the deceased insured’s husband, who was later convicted of her murder, finding that the husband had no just defense for failure to respond to the complaint and while the lodestar method to calculate attorney fees was appropriate, the attorney fee request was reduced by the hours of clerical work.
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March 27, 2026
AUSTIN, Texas — A trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of an insurer on claims alleging that the insurer violated the Texas Insurance Code by denying the insured’s theft claim in bad faith because the insurer met its burden of showing that a reasonable coverage dispute existed; however, the trial court improperly granted the insurer’s motion on the insured’s breach of contract claim because the value of the insured’s stolen items was not an essential element of the breach of contract claim, the Third District Texas Court of Appeals said March 26.
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March 24, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 23 held that an insured failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether she timely filed her lawsuit seeking coverage for her alleged loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal belongings that were destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in October 2017, affirming a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the insurers in her five-year-old pro se lawsuit alleging claims for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, misrepresentation, emotional distress and violations of the Unruh Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and California Business and Professions Code Section 17200.
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March 19, 2026
By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Peter J. Lewis
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March 23, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio granted insured hotel companies’ motion for partial judgment on the pleadings and denied their general liability insurer’s cross-motion for partial judgment on the pleadings in the insureds’ breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit alleging that the insurer arbitrarily and capriciously denied coverage for 11 underlying lawsuits alleging that human trafficking occurred at various Red Roof hotels, holding that the underlying lawsuits constitute an "occurrence” under the policy and that the doctrine of inferred intent and Ohio's public policy do not preclude coverage.
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March 20, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss an insured’s negligent misrepresentation claim because the insured plausibly alleged that the insurer negligently misrepresented its need for additional information about the vandalism of the insured’s property; however, the judge granted the insurer’s motion as it applied to the insured’s claim for punitive damages because such a claim is not an independent cause of action.
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March 20, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — A panel of the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division affirmed a trial court’s judgment in favor of a homeowners insurer in a water damage coverage dispute after determining that the lower court did not err in allowing a jury to determine if the insurer breached its contract when it ceased payments for the repair of the insured’s condominium unit.
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March 20, 2026
DENVER — Three associations filed an amicus curiae brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of a townhome management company’s appeal of a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a contractor’s insurer in the company’s case against the insurer for coverage of construction defects and alleging bad faith, arguing that the lower court ignored case law surrounding the purpose of Nunn agreements.
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March 19, 2026
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania granted a solar panel company’s insurer’s motion to dismiss a case a homeowner brought against the insurer for denying his claim after the solar panel company’s faulty workmanship on the property caused damage, finding that the homeowner failed to allege facts to establish subject matter jurisdiction or establish a controversy.
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March 19, 2026
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana federal judge dismissed a bad faith claim without prejudice after determining that the insureds failed to show that the insurer of a recreational vehicle wrongfully refused to pay policy proceeds, deceived the insureds or delayed the adjustment of the insureds’ vandalism claim.
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March 19, 2026
ATLANTA — A trial court erred in dismissing an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith complaint against his auto insurer because the insurer’s filing of an interpleader action and its deposit of the insured’s auto policy limits into a court registry did not absolve the insurer from its duty to protect the insured from the entry of an excess verdict in an underlying suit filed against the insured, a Georgia appeals panel said.
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March 19, 2026
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — To correct a “procedural conundrum” indicated by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while ruling on an insurer’s petition for writ of mandamus challenging an order requiring it to produce discovery on an insured’s bad faith claim, a federal judge in Florida severed a bad faith claim from a breach of contract claim in a Hurricane Michael coverage dispute and entered a $9,817,232.97 final judgment in favor of the insured on the breach of contract claim so the severed claims can proceed as their own separate lawsuits and result in separate final judgments from which appeals may be filed.
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March 19, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A federal magistrate judge in California granted insurers’ motion for summary judgment on claims brought against them by an insured subcontractor for not defending or indemnifying it in an underlying construction-defect arbitration because coverage was barred under the policy as the construction project at issue was not completed.
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March 18, 2026
DURHAM, N.C. — Three months after granting a commercial property insurer’s motion to dismiss claims for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair and deceptive trade practices brought by four Durham restaurants seeking coverage for their business interruption losses arising from the lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal judge in North Carolina denied the insurer’s motion to dismiss the insureds’ amended complaint because it now includes facts that make the claims plausible to the extent that they are based on the insurer’s conduct since the North Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling in N. State Deli, LLC v. Cincinnati Ins. Co.
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March 16, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment in a breach of contract and bad faith suit stemming from a coverage dispute over the insured’s water damage claim because the insured failed to file suit within one year of the inception of the loss as required by the policy’s suit limitation provision.
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March 16, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the grant of summary judgment against a widow bringing a putative class action lawsuit against an insurer for alleged underpayment of a life insurance policy, allegedly in breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the insurer paid the policy in full and was entitled to deduct unpaid premiums.