Hinshaw Releases Second Edition of Duty to Defend: A Fifty-State Survey
Loading and Unloading Under GL and Auto Policies: 2022
Prior & Pending Litigation
What is a Damron Agreement?
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, applying California law, has affirmed a district court’s determination that California Insurance Code § 533 barred indemnity and defense costs coverage for a lawsuit...more
There’s been plenty of litigation over whether construction defect claims qualify for coverage under a CGL policy. This month, we discuss two federal circuit court rulings (First and Seventh Circuits) that reach opposite...more
Second Circuit Holds That Malpractice Insurer Has No Duty to Defend or to Indemnify Lawyer Because Of Business Enterprise Exclusion- Associated Industries Insurance Company sued its insureds, a lawyer, and his former law...more
When it comes to insurance contracts, the devil is often in the details, as a recent Oregon Court of Appeals case illustrated. In The Final Table, LLC v. Acceptance Casualty Insurance Co., an individual was seriously injured...more
Mental state, in some form, is the common theme running through our first three cases this month. The Fifth Circuit decides whether directors and officers of an ice cream company, accused of breaching their fiduciary...more
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, applying Illinois law, has held that an insurer had a duty to defend an insured condominium association and its board members against an underlying...more
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, applying Illinois law, has held that an insurer’s complaint plausibly alleged that the insured had breached the terms of the policy’s cooperation clause....more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that, under Indiana law, when a liability insurer breaches its duty to defend, the defense costs that the insured incurs in the underlying matter are...more
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, applying Florida law, has determined that two lawyers professional liability insurers had a duty to defend where the underlying complaint included at...more
The Northern District of Illinois has held that claims brought under the Illinois False Claims Act (“IFCA”) are not uninsurable as a matter of Illinois law. The insured, a telecommunications company with $2 million in...more
The United States District Court for the District of South Dakota, applying South Dakota law, has held that an insured healthcare system was barred from settling without its healthcare liability insurer’s consent where the...more
Applying Maine law, the United States District Court for the District of Maine has held that a legal professional liability insurer had a duty to defend an insured attorney against a suit alleging sexual assault of a client,...more
On November 23, 2021, the Montana Supreme Court issued an almost unanimous decision in National Indemnity Company v. State of Montana, a ten-year-old coverage dispute arising from claims against the State of Montana alleging...more
California courts strictly enforce an insurer’s duty to immediately commence defending its insured. The insurer’s delay in doing so, even if the delay is short, constitutes a breach of this important duty. In fact, California...more
Miller Marital Deduction Trust v. Zurich American Insurance Company, — P.3d –, 2019 WL 5304862; First Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division Three, Case No. A155398 (October 21, 2019). In Miller Marital Deduction...more
McMillin Homes Constr., Inc. v. National Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 35 Cal.App.5th 1042 (2019); Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division One, Case No. D074219 (June 5, 2019). McMillin Homes Construction, Inc....more
Scope: The “Comparison Test” - The defense obligation arises when a defense is needed: at the outset of the suit. It follows that, unlike the duty to indemnify (which depends on the “true” facts as they are determined in...more
In Hyland v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co., No. 1:15-cv-01264-JES-JEH, 2017 WL 3388161 (C.D. Ill. Aug. 7, 2017), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment for...more
KICC –Alcan Gen. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Ins. Co., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37560 (March 16, 2017) - A Contractor/Construction Manager, KICC-Alcan General (“KICC”), entered into a subcontract with an MEP subcontractor,...more
The Complex Commercial Litigation Division of the Superior Court of Delaware recently held that Travelers Indemnity Company (“Travelers”) breached its duty to defend and indemnify plaintiff CNH Industrial America LLC (“CNH”)...more
Those who follow the work of the Wisconsin appellate courts might recognize this question as one that District II of the Court of Appeals certified to the Supreme Court nearly five years ago in Wilkinson v. Arbuckle, 2011 WI...more
The first line of the Seventh Circuit’s opinion says it all: “This case provides a warning for insurance companies who refuse to defend their insureds.” As the court’s admonishment suggests, insurers that improperly refuse to...more
On April 30, 2015, we blogged about Hartford Casualty Insurance Company v. J.R. Marketing, LLC, Case No. S211645, then set for oral argument in the California Supreme Court. [see the prior post: California’s “Independent”...more
The California Supreme Court held in Hartford Casualty Insurance Company v. J.R. Marketing, L.L.C. (Squire Sanders) (8/10/2015 - #S211645) that if Cumis counsel, operating under a court order which such counsel drafted and...more
In Yowell v. Seneca Specialty Ins. Co., 2015 WL 4575450, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98719 (E.D.Tex., Jul. 28, 2015), the Eastern District of Texas ruled that an insurer’s unexplained, 140-day delay in agreeing to defend its...more