-
August 17, 2026
LAKE CHARLES, La. — In a pair of orders, a federal judge in Louisiana on Aug. 14 denied motions filed by a couple’s homeowners insurer to exclude expert testimony from an engineer and an adjuster retained in a breach of contract case alleging that the insurer failed to cover losses stemming from a tornado.
-
August 17, 2026
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Second District Texas Court of Appeals panel held that a trial court judge was wrong to reduce a jury’s damages award to a couple who brought bad faith and Texas insurance law claims against their homeowners insurer for refusing to cover the cost of replacing an allegedly hail-damaged roof of their home. The panel opted, though, to modify the award to $14,500 instead of granting the jury’s full damages award or remanding the case based on a rejected settlement offer and a provision of the state insurance code.
-
August 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insured’s breach of contract claim against a homeowners insurer that denied coverage for damages caused by a burglary at the insured’s home can proceed because issues of fact exist as to whether the insured complied with his obligations under the policy, a California federal judge said in partially denying the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
-
August 17, 2026
HOUSTON — Claims alleging breach of contract, bad faith and violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) can proceed against an auto insurer because questions of fact exist as to whether the insured’s wife was married to him at the time of an auto accident and whether she lived with the insured at the time of the accident, a Texas federal judge said in partially denying the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
-
August 14, 2026
LAKE CHARLES, La. — A trial court did not err in determining that Louisiana law applies to a bad faith suit because the bad faith claim arises out of a contractual obligation under a commercial auto policy that was issued and delivered in Louisiana, a panel of the Third Circuit Louisiana Court of Appeal said in affirming a trial court’s judgment.
-
August 14, 2026
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A title insurer has no duty to defend an insured in an underlying suit filed by the insured’s neighbors arising from the use of an easement because no coverage is owed under the terms of the title insurance policy, a Connecticut judge said after granting rehearing but reaffirming a decision to grant the title insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
-
August 14, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A bad faith claim alleged against a homeowners insurer cannot proceed because a legitimate dispute existed over the insureds’ claim for damages caused by a burst water pipe, a Delaware state judge said in partially granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
-
August 12, 2026
STOCKTON, Calif. — An almond farm seeks compensatory damages in a California state court from an insurer, an insurance agency, an insurance agent and an almond-processing company arising from a crop insurance claim that the farm alleges was wrongfully denied because one of the insurers and its agent failed to properly transmit its timely notice of loss, resulting in the claim falling past the “‘end of harvest date’” of its policy.
-
August 11, 2026
BATON ROUGE, La. — In response to insured homeowners’ motion for partial summary judgment seeking a declaration that the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) is subject to bad faith penalties for its post-insolvency claims handling in a Hurricane Ida coverage dispute in Louisiana federal court, LIGA urged the court to deny the motion, arguing that LIGA, as a “statutory guaranty association” rather than an insurer, is limited in its obligations “to the payment of covered claims.”
-
August 11, 2026
PHOENIX — Finding default judgment appropriate, an Arizona federal judge granted default judgment to an insurer in a case the judge deemed as having a “strange history” in which a named insured replaced the original plaintiff after the breach of contract suit was removed to federal court after which the insurer filed counterclaims for rescission and declaratory judgment based upon purported misrepresentations in the insurance application.
-
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.
-
August 07, 2026
DALLAS — While recognizing that the decision “gives the court pause” because of the “extraordinary delay” in the filing, a federal judge in Texas granted an insurer’s motion to compel appraisal in an ongoing, three-year-old lawsuit alleging breach of contract, bad faith and state insurance law claims in a dispute over whether damage to the roofs of two commercial buildings was caused by a 2021 hailstorm.
-
August 07, 2026
SCRANTON, Pa. — A bad faith claim alleged against a businessowners insurer must be dismissed without prejudice because the insureds failed to provide specific details as to how the insurer acted in bad faith in handling a claim for water damage at an insured commercial building, a Pennsylvania federal judge said.
-
August 06, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of an auto insurer on bad faith and unfair trade practices claims because the insurer’s duty of good faith was owed to the insured driver and not the injured passenger, a panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court said in affirming the judgment.
-
August 06, 2026
MOBILE, Ala. — An Alabama federal magistrate judge recommended that an insured’s bad faith claim against an auto insurer be dismissed because the insured failed to state a viable bad faith claim, noting that there was no bad faith refusal to pay, only a delay in the insurer’s response to the insured’s request for consent to settle with a tortfeasor.
-
August 06, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana held that insureds have established that their insurer will not be able to satisfy its burden at trial of demonstrating the essential elements of its breach of contract counterclaim, granting their motion for summary judgment on the last remaining counterclaim in a dispute over Hurricane Ida damage.
-
August 05, 2026
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A New Mexico federal magistrate judge denied without prejudice an auto insurer’s motion to dismiss an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit for lack of personal jurisdiction after determining that the auto insurer failed to show that it is not the entity that issued the insured’s auto policy.
-
August 05, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a lower court was right to grant summary judgment in favor of an insurance carrier and its claims administrator on a general contractor’s claims seeking damages under West Virginia’s Hayseeds doctrine — which allows insured who substantially prevail against their insurers to recover attorney fees and other consequential damages — and for statutory bad faith arising from the insurer’s handling of a construction defect coverage dispute, holding that no reasonable jury would find in the contractor’s favor.
-
July 31, 2026
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 30 affirmed a lower court’s ruling granting summary judgment to a life insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith suit over the insurer’s failure to pay the death benefits under a $4 million life insurance policy, finding that the policy was void as a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) policy because the policy was procured with the intent to benefit persons lacking an insurable interest in the insured’s life under New Jersey law.
-
July 31, 2026
SPOKANE, Wash. — Responding to a health care organizations management liability insurer’s petition for partial panel rehearing, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals modified its opinion but did not alter its ruling that reversed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the insurer in a lawsuit seeking to enforce an underlying $2.4 million consent judgment against its inpatient substance abuse treatment facility insured.
-
July 30, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Citing Yegiazaryan v. Smagin and finding “a clear indication that” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “applies extraterritorially to the plaintiffs’ claims for benefits,” a Pennsylvania federal judge declined to remand a case in which Kosovo residents who say they worked for a U.S.-based company seek long-term disability (LTD) benefits from a U.S.-based insurer; the judge then granted dismissal with leave to amend on the grounds that ERISA preempts all of the employees’ state law claims.
-
July 30, 2026
DES MOINES, Iowa — The majority of the Iowa Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an auto insurer and umbrella insurer after determining that the lower court must determine whether the auto insurer was actually prejudiced by the insureds’ noncompliance with the auto policy’s terms without considering if there was a presumption of prejudice.
-
July 29, 2026
LAS VEGAS — A third-party claimant’s tortious breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim was dismissed without prejudice because the claimant failed to show that the auto insurer unreasonably failed to settle a claim on behalf of its insured, a Nevada federal judge said.
-
July 29, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge dismissed an insured’s counterclaims for breach of contract and bad faith against an insurer and dismissed the insurer’s cross-claim for declaratory judgment against the insured after the parties agreed to settle their dispute over insurance coverage for underlying suits related to exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allegedly contained in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) that were manufactured and sold by the insured.
-
July 28, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on July 27 dismissed an insured’s statutory bad faith claim without prejudice after determining that the insured failed to provide facts explaining why the insurer’s settlement offers were unreasonable or how the insurer failed to act fairly in handling his claim.