Pennsylvania law allows verdict winners in cases involving property damage, bodily injury, or death to request delay damages from the liable defendants. Delay damages are awarded for the period starting one year after initial...more
Seeking to find some relief from business losses experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses turned to their property insurers for coverage for their lost income. A clear national trend emerged among courts...more
On August 17, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided Schwartz v. Menas, 279 A.3d 436 (N.J. 2022). At issue was whether the plaintiff’s claim for lost profits damages as a new business was barred by the “new business rule.” This...more
Insurance policies covering first-party property damage often require insureds to notify insurers of a loss “as soon as practicable.” Where an insured may or may not have given notice “as soon as practicable,” the issue...more
On May 12, 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a bill requiring insurers to go on record as to whether their policies, which provide coverage for the loss of use and occupancy and business interruption,...more
On March 18, 2021, the Pennsylvania Superior Court decided Spencer v. Johnson, 2021 Pa. Super. 48 (Pa. Super. Ct. March 18, 2021) in which the court suggested in dicta that the Fair Share Act is only implicated when the...more
With the COVID-19 pandemic and government stay-at-home orders came an unprecedented number of claims for business interruption coverage under first-party property policies—and the inevitable coverage litigation over those...more
On July 2, 2020, an amended California Assembly Bill 1552 (Bill 1522 or the bill), which relates to commercial business interruption coverage of insured businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, was referred to the...more
On April 3, 2020, following in the footsteps of New Jersey, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and Louisiana, Pennsylvania’s legislature introduced House Bill 2372, “[a]n Act providing for insurance coverage for business...more
Commentary on insurance coverage for businesses in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) has largely, and unsurprisingly, focused on business interruption losses, civil authority provisions, and virus exclusions. However, to get...more
The New Jersey legislature recently introduced a bill designed to compel insurance companies to pay some business interruption claims arising out of the coronavirus. The law’s drafters are aware that, to do so, they are...more
Without question, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a world-wide pandemic and paralyzed the United States economy in the first quarter of 2020. Many businesses have been forced to shut down or modify their...more
It wasn’t a question of if, but when. And the wait wasn’t long.
Yesterday's suit was filed in a Louisiana state court by a restaurant seeking a declaration of coverage for coronavirus-caused losses under a business...more
The Delaware Superior Court in Powell v. AmGuard Insurance Company, C.A. No. K17C-11-003 JJC, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 109 (Del. Super. Ct. Mar. 2, 2020) (Clark, J.) recently held that a jury’s $500,000 punitive damages award...more
The coronavirus is contagious. The same can be said of articles, penned by coverage lawyers, addressing the potential availability of insurance for losses tied to the pandemic. We've lost track of how many we've seen....more
White and Williams, on behalf of various industry groups, including the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, filed an amicus brief on November 14th urging the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reconsider its...more
The United States Supreme Court recently approved and adopted amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 concerning class action practice as proposed by the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. The amended rule went into...more