-
April 18, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Suquamish Tribe in Washington filed an opposition to insurers’ 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,” asking the high court to not disturb the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ 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.
-
April 18, 2025
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Invoking both the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), a captive insurance manager filed a complaint in a federal court in Tennessee challenging an Internal Revenue Service final rule targeting small captive tax avoidance schemes, requesting that the regulation be set aside as unlawful, arbitrary and capricious and an overreach of statutory authority.
-
April 17, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — Arguing that the plaintiffs in a putative class suit lack standing to bring a Delaware Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (DUFTA) claim, an insurance holding company and its affiliates seek summary judgment in the Delaware Chancery Court over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.
-
April 16, 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Insured hotel companies sued their general liability insurer in an Ohio federal court for breach of contract and bad faith, alleging that the insurer arbitrarily and capriciously denied coverage for 11 underlying lawsuits alleging that human trafficking occurred at various Red Roof hotels.
-
April 15, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Telling the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the issues raised are not “grounds for dismissal” and that it “could not have forfeited an appeal of the new fee award and opinion before they existed, when the case was in the opposite posture,” the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan on April 14 asked to be allowed to proceed with its appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player.
-
April 15, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — Contending in part that de novo review was correctly applied because of an “inexcusable failure to issue a timely decision,” a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claimant urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judgment that she is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.
-
March 20, 2025
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.
-
April 15, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs sued California Fair Plan Association (CFPA) and its “largest” members for breach of contract and bad faith in a California court, seeking compensation for their losses incurred by the January Los Angeles wildfires and to hold CFPA “accountable for its decade-long, systematic failure to properly investigate and pay wildfire claims.”
-
April 15, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Skechers USA Inc. sued its commercial liability insurer in a California court for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair competition, alleging that the insurer has a duty to defend it against an underlying action contending that class members were harmed by actual physical accidents caused by the insured’s shoes’ lack of slip-resistance or by the fact that the shoes were unusable.
-
April 14, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — Plaintiffs and one of their liability insurers filed in a Delaware court a stipulation and proposed order of voluntary dismissal with prejudice of all claims between them in a coverage lawsuit arising from an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars in defense costs.
-
April 14, 2025
PHOENIX — Arguing in part that the defendants’ “desired interpretation runs counter to the well-pleaded facts, the parties’ expectations, any reasonable consumer’s expectations, and decisional law,” a plaintiff on April 11 urged an Arizona federal court to deny dismissal of his putative class complaint over whether certain individual long-term disability (LTD) benefits must be paid through eligible insureds’ 65th birthdays.
-
April 14, 2025
SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state sued its employment practices liability insurer in a Washington court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington.
-
April 09, 2025
DETROIT — Citing an arbitration provision that is part of a reinsurance agreement, defendants in a suit over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease moved in Michigan federal court for dismissal or, alternatively, a stay pending arbitration.
-
April 08, 2025
ATLANTA — Noting the role that social media posts played and arguing that the appellant’s evidence was not overlooked and the opinions of her doctors were not ignored, a disability insurer urges the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold its termination of benefits as “based on substantial evidence, including multiple medical reviews, an uncontested vocational assessment identifying alternative occupations, and inconsistencies in [her] self-reported physical tolerances.”
-
April 08, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Insurers have filed a subrogation lawsuit alleging negligence and inverse condemnation against Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) in a California court, alleging that the Eaton fire could have been prevented had the defendant acted responsibly.
-
April 07, 2025
LOS ANGELES — No coverage is owed for underlying bodily injury suits stemming from exposure to silica dust released from an insured’s countertops and stone products because the suits are barred by silica exclusions and total pollution exclusions included in the insured’s commercial general liability insurance policies, an insurer says in a complaint filed in California federal court.
-
April 03, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, as well as the Washington Legal Foundation, filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of automobile insurers, challenging a majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ conclusion that a lower court abused its discretion when it decertified a negotiation class because the insureds established that “injury could be calculated on a class-wide basis.”
-
April 02, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — An insured and one of its insurers filed a stipulation asking a Delaware court to dismiss with prejudice all claims against the insurer in a professional liability coverage dispute arising from a Medicaid fraud investigation.
-
April 01, 2025
PADUCAH, Ky. — An insurer and reinsurer seek leave from a Kentucky federal magistrate judge to file an opposition to a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents from the insurers in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs; they argue in their reply in support of their motion for leave that the motion for reconsideration violates at least two prior orders and improperly raises new arguments.
-
March 27, 2025
HARTFORD, Conn. — Asset managers holding matured insurance policies filed a memorandum requesting that a Connecticut state court affirm that policy owners may apply unpaid death benefit claims as setoffs against ongoing premium obligations during a life insurer’s rehabilitation, arguing that such rights are mandated under state and common law; in a response filed two weeks later, the rehabilitator argues that that stance is “meritless.”
-
March 26, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Arguing in part that “[i]t would be patently unfair to reverse [his] benefits award while citing his failures to properly appeal and then excuse the Plan’s own failures to properly appeal the Fee Award,” a former National Football League player filed a motion asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the plan’s appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs.
-
March 25, 2025
ST. LOUIS — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying suit filed by the buyer of the insured’s home, who alleges that the insured failed to disclose the presence of mold in the home prior to the sale, because the insured’s homeowners policy excludes coverage for fungi and bacteria and because the policy was terminated prior to the filing of the underlying suit, a homeowners insurer says in a complaint filed in Missouri federal court.
-
March 19, 2025
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
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
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.