On April 3, 2025, a Texas state appeals court reversed a trial court order awarding Exxon Mobil $25 million under an umbrella insurance policy issued by Lexington Insurance Co. to Brock Services Ltd. The appeals court found...more
Obtaining additional insured coverage is one critical tool in the risk transfer toolbox. Owners and contractors on construction projects routinely ask “downstream” contractors and subcontractors to sign contracts wherein the...more
Construction contracts at all tiers usually include terms requiring certain types of insurance, and often contain related provisions about indemnity. This “boilerplate” can be important if a job goes south, so here’s a short...more
A recent decision by a panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit serves as a reminder that sometimes insurers and policyholders must look outside the insurance policies to determine the priority of...more
Additional insured (“AI”) requirements for commercial general liability (CGL) policies are very common in construction contracts. An Owner routinely requires its general contractor (“GC”) to provide AI coverage for itself,...more
This article addresses potential issues and concerns, which may arise between General Contractors (“General”), Subcontractors (the “Sub”) and their insurers when claims by outside parties (also known as third-parties) may...more
Construction professionals in New York face new hurdles in ensuring they are covered as additional insureds under other parties’ commercial general liability insurance policies....more
As two recent cases demonstrate, a coverage disclaimer in New York is only as good as its compliance with that state’s various rules for perfecting a disclaimer in connection with a bodily injury claim. Under New York...more
A recent New York case highlights the importance of thoroughly analyzing all contract language in minimizing project risk. In Gilbane Bldg. Co./TDX Construction Corp. v. St. Paul Fire & Mar. Ins. Co., the Court of Appeals of...more
The Situation: The issue of whether "blanket" additional insured endorsements require direct contractual privity with an insurance policy's "named insured" has received inconsistent treatment by U.S. courts. The...more
An Illinois General Contractor learned a hard lesson the other day; the case is Vivify Constr., LLC v. Nautilus Ins. Co., 2017 IL App (1st) 170192. The General Contractor, Vivify Construction, subcontracted part of the job...more
This past year, the Insurance Company Team recently welcomed six new team members from The Woodlands, Texas office of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. The combined experience of the new members brings decades of Texas focused...more
“Insureds may wish, or be contractually obligated, to extend their insurance coverage to other individuals or entities,” commonly referred to as additional insureds. In fact, in certain industries, additional insured...more
That it took an appellate court to order AIG’s Lexington Insurance to honor its additional insured obligations is a measure of how frequently insurers attempt to dodge this important contractual obligation. The case of...more
On May 26, 2015, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down its much anticipated decision in Mutual Benefit Ins. Co. v. Christos Politsopoulos. The decision is good news for policyholders, particularly those who use...more