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Medical Malpractice Litigation
On May 2, 2025, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in AdHealth Limited v. PorterCare Adventist Health Systems affirming the lower court’s summary judgment ruling that a hospital’s excess liability insurance...more
Applying New York state law, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York held that a professional liability insurer had waived its rescission claims by failing to request additional explanations for...more
John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.” Indeed, every time we ring in a new year, there are inevitably new laws, regulations, or...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently interpreted the “loss of chance” provision of West Virginia’s Medical Professional Liability Act (the MPLA). In Graham v. Dhar, the Court ruled that a...more
Plaintiff Cannot Cure Defective Malpractice Opinion Letter with an Affidavit Connecticut law requires that a plaintiff in a medical malpractice action demonstrate the existence of his or her good faith by obtaining a written...more
In National Fire & Marine Insurance Company v. Hampton, No. 19-17235 (9th Cir. Oct. 21, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that a doctor’s guilty plea to the unlawful distribution of a controlled substance barred insurance...more
Applying Nevada law, the Ninth Circuit has held that a professional liability insurer did not have a duty to defend or indemnify a doctor for a wrongful death action because the doctor’s guilty plea triggered an exclusion for...more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, applying Pennsylvania law, has held that an insurer is estopped from denying coverage for a legal malpractice action after defending the action for over a year...more
There have been more developments in Ironshore Specialty Insurance Co. v. Conemaugh Health System Inc., the case brought by Ironshore, as excess carrier, to seek reimbursement of amounts paid in an underlying medical...more
Columbia Casualty Company v. Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company, No. 15-197, 2019 WL 2176306 (D.R.I. May 20, 2019) - In a dispute between two insurers arising from the once-largest medical malpractice award in Rhode...more
In John Patty, D.O., LLC v. Missouri Professionals Mutual Physicians Professional Indemnity Association, No. ED106747 (Mo. Ct. App. Apr. 23, 2019), a Missouri appellate court rejected the lower court’s decision regarding...more
In Ironshore Specialty Insurance Co. v. Conemaugh Health Systems, Inc., No. 3:18-cv-153 (W.D. Pa. Feb. 28, 2019), the Western District of Pennsylvania refused to dismiss an excess carrier’s suit seeking reimbursement from its...more
On March 18, 2019, the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision holding that Sedgwick Claims Management Services made reasonable and prompt efforts to settle a nursing home liability claim, and therefore was not...more
In a Rule 1:28 decision applying New Hampshire law, the Appeals Court affirmed the entry of summary judgment dismissing a doctor’s suit accusing her professional liability insurer of improper settlement of a claim without her...more
Lancet Indemnity’s $1 M med mal policy had a standard clause requiring the insured, Dr. Ishtiaq Malik, to cooperate and assist Lancet and appointed counsel in investigating and defending claims. But when the family of...more
Is a nurse employed by a staffing agency and temporarily assigned to work at a hospital considered an “employee” of the hospital and therefore entitled to coverage under the hospital’s liability insurance policy?...more
In Coastal Surgical Institute v. Blevins (B254787, filed 1/12/15) the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, held that the tolling provisions of Insurance Code section 11583 apply to the one-year limitations...more
Tibble v. Am. Physicians Capital, Inc., No. 306944, 2014 WL 5462573 (Mich. Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2014). The Michigan Court of Appeals holds that although the trial court erred when it defined “bad faith” for the jury, the...more