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Mealey's Insurance Pleadings

  • March 20, 2025

    Insurer To 4th Circuit: Overturn Ruling In Long Covid Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Arguing that the lower court improperly applied de novo review and wrongly concluded that the claimant showed that she is disabled from working as an engineer because of long COVID symptoms, an insurer urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judgment that the claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

  • March 19, 2025

    Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Carbon Monoxide Injury Suits

    DETROIT — No coverage is owed for underlying suits seeking damages for bodily injuries incurred as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning stemming from a malfunctioning pool heater at an insured’s hotel because the excess policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the underlying suits, an excess insurer says in a complaint filed in Michigan federal court.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Opposes Catholic Diocese’s Motion To File Amicus Brief In Contamination Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — An insurer on March 17 filed an opposition to a California Catholic diocese’s motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief in an insured’s appeal in a groundwater contamination coverage suit, telling the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the diocese should not be granted leave to file an amicus brief because the diocese’s arguments are not relevant to the contamination coverage dispute at issue.

  • March 18, 2025

    Oral Argument Sought In Challenge To Rehab Plan For Workers’ Comp Insurer

    SAN FRANCISCO — Both parties have requested oral argument in the First District California Court of Appeal in a workers’ compensation insurance carrier’s challenge to a nonconsensual rehabilitation plan that was approved as part of conservation proceedings brought by California’s insurance regulator and includes resolution of dozens of reinsurance participation agreement (RPA) lawsuits.

  • March 18, 2025

    Insurer Seeks Take-Nothing Judgment After Jury Awards Insured $39.9M In Storm Suit

    TYLER, Texas — A commercial property insurer moved for full judgment as a matter of law and alternatively a new trial after a jury in a Texas federal court unanimously awarded its insured $4,838,747 in damages for its breach of contract and $35 million in exemplary damages for its breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing in a coverage dispute arising from property damage that was caused by an April 12, 2020, wind and hailstorm.

  • March 17, 2025

    6th Circuit Asked To Rehear No Coverage Ruling In Professional Liability Dispute

    CINCINNATI — An appellant filed a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc asking the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 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, arguing that the panel opinion misapplied insurance law, failed to hold the insurer accountable “for its shifting justifications” and created “an insurmountable burden for third parties attempting to report claims.”

  • March 17, 2025

    Dismissal Bids Fought In Row Over Vesttoo-Linked Letters Of Credit

    NEW YORK — In four motions that have drawn opposition, China Construction Bank Corp. (CCBC) and related defendants seek dismissal of claims that stem from the alleged fraud underlying the collapse of nonparty Vesttoo Ltd., arguing primarily that the New York federal court lacks jurisdiction and the claims are not sufficiently stated.

  • March 14, 2025

    New York Alleges Insurers Violated State Data Breach Notification Laws

    NEW YORK — The people of New York sued insurers in a New York court alleging that they violated state data breach notification laws by failing to alert impacted New Yorkers or state agencies of a data breach in which drivers’ license numbers of close to 200,000 consumers were exposed to attackers.

  • March 11, 2025

    Insured Says Reimbursement Owed For Underlying Water Contamination Complaints

    LOS ANGELES — An insured company filed suit in California federal court against its general liability insurer, claiming that the insurer’s refusal to defend it or reimburse it for costs incurred in defending itself against two water contamination suits was a breach of contract and a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

  • March 06, 2025

    Baylor College Of Medicine Seeks Texas High Court Review Of COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    AUSTIN, Texas — Baylor College of Medicine filed a petition in the Texas Supreme Court seeking review of an appeals court’s conclusion that the presence of the COVID-19 virus at its premises did not cause “direct physical loss of or damage to” to its property, challenging the appeals court’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment following a jury verdict in the school’s favor.

  • March 06, 2025

    Disability Insurer Says Judgment Was Proper; Claimant Is Capable Of Sedentary Work

    ATLANTA — A district court’s judgment in favor of a disability insurer was correct because the evidence supports the lower court’s finding that the disability claimant is not disabled from performing the duties of any occupation and is capable of performing sedentary work, the insurer contends in an appellee brief filed in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 06, 2025

    Reinsurance Pool Manager Accused Of Illegal $1B Transfer In Reorganization Scheme

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A member of a captive insurance and reinsurance pool alleges in a complaint filed in a Delaware state court that the pool manager and others engaged in an illegal reorganization that transferred policies from its "A" rated pool with more than $1 billion in assets to a new, unrated insurer with limited capitalization and only $170 million in reinsurance limits.

  • March 05, 2025

    Lower Court Properly Found Disability Claimant Failed To Meet Burden, Insurer Says

    CHICAGO — A district court properly found that a disability claimant failed to satisfy her burden of proving that she remained disabled from working in a sedentary occupation as a result of symptoms related to fibromyalgia, a disability insurer says in an appellee brief filed in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 04, 2025

    Parties Seek Dismissal Of Data Breach Coverage Suit Following Settlement

    SEATTLE — A media tech insurer and its financial services firm insured filed a joint stipulation asking a Washington federal court to dismiss with prejudice the insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify the insured for a bank’s indemnification demand for a data breach incident and a related subrogation lawsuit brought by the bank’s insurer.

  • March 04, 2025

    Furniture Delivery Company Asks 9th Circuit To Rehear UCL Coverage Dispute

    PASADENA, Calif. — A furniture delivery company insured has asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling that an insurer has no duty to defend it against an underlying misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition lawsuit brought by a competitor, challenging the appeal court’s affirmation of a lower federal court’s grant of the insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit.

  • March 04, 2025

    Silica Exposure Lawsuits Involve More Than 1 Occurrence, Insured Says In Complaint

    NEW YORK — A commercial general liability insurer breached its contract and acted in bad faith by determining that more than 100 underlying silica exposure lawsuits filed against the insured are subject to coverage under only one insurance policy and involve only a single occurrence under the policy, an insured alleges in a complaint filed in New York federal court.

  • March 03, 2025

    Parties Brief Summary Judgment Bids In Indemnification Dispute Involving Deals

    BOSTON — Competing summary judgment motions have been filed in an indemnification dispute, with the plaintiff telling a Massachusetts federal court that it is entitled to damages of at least $75.7 million plus interest and fees under the plain language of a stock purchase agreement (SPA) and reinsurance agreement, and the defendant contending that agreements executed in a  later “clean shell” deal constituted a novation of any obligations and that the plaintiff’s conduct since 2013 “is not how an insurer acts with respect to a company that it truly believes is providing it with reinsurance coverage.”

  • March 03, 2025

    Homeowner Amends Complaint Against Insurer In Black Mold Coverage Suit

    ABERDEEN, Miss. — Consistent with a Mississippi federal judge’s order, an insured homeowner filed an amended complaint against her homeowners insurer, clarifying the date on which the insured was forced to move out of her home as a result of black mold growth.

  • February 28, 2025

    Insurer: No Coverage Owed For Suit Arising From Blockade In Support of Palestine

    NEW YORK — A commercial general liability and directors and officers liability insurer filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify against an underlying lawsuit alleging that its insured was instrumental in coordinating an April 15 blockade as part of an international campaign to disrupt the off-ramp leading into Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in support of the liberation of Palestine.

  • February 26, 2025

    Stay Of Mandate Pending Planned Petition Sought In Disability Benefits Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — Saying they plan to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case where a panel entered an unpublished opinion in favor of a disability insurer, a disability claimant and her husband moved in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay a mandate that would otherwise soon follow denial of their request for rehearing.

  • February 25, 2025

    Insurer Answers Counterclaim In Suit Over Misrepresentation About Auto Body Shop

    MINNEAPOLIS — A commercial general liability insurer filed an answer to its insureds’ counterclaim in a fire coverage dispute over whether the insurer is entitled to rescind the policy for the insureds’ purported misrepresentation for failure to disclose that an auto body shop operated on their premises.

  • February 25, 2025

    Insurer Disputes Contention That ‘Windstorm’ Is Ambiguous In Tornado Coverage Suit

    AUSTIN, Texas — Replying to insureds’ response to its petition for review asking the Texas Supreme Court to review a Texas appellate court majority’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment against the insureds in a coverage dispute arising from tornado damage, a homeowners insurer asserts that the insureds’ contention that “windstorm” is ambiguous “can be true only for those unfamiliar with English grammar, plain language, and precedent.”

  • February 24, 2025

    Insured Says Allocation To Excess Insurer In Contamination Suit Was Proper

    SEATTLE — A trial court correctly found that an insured was permitted to allocate more than $500,000 in defense costs incurred for environmental contamination liabilities to an excess insurer because the timing of the allocation of the defense costs was appropriate based on the timing of a decision a prior appeal filed by the insured, the insured says in a response brief filed in the Division I Washington Court of Appeals.

  • February 24, 2025

    Insurers Ask Supreme Court To Decide Whether Tribal Court Can Exercise Jurisdiction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied insurers’ petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc asking it to reconsider its opinion that affirmed a federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land, the insurers filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine “whether a tribal court can exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers of the tribe based on off-reservation conduct.”

  • February 21, 2025

    Status Report Filed In 1st Circuit By Puerto Rico Insurance Commissioner

    BOSTON — In status report filed in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Puerto Rico insurance commissioner and the auxiliary rehabilitator of a health insurer informed the court that a court hearing a case under Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act is currently considering an objection filed by Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board opposing requests by two plaintiffs in related cases before a Puerto Rico federal court asking the Title III court to allow their cases to proceed to trial.