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Policy Exclusions Duty to Defend Commercial General Liability Policies

Carlton Fields

Seventh Circuit Affirms Broad Reading of CGL Policy’s “Radioactive Matter Exclusion” to Include EMF Radiation

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On July 9, 2025, in Hammond Power Solutions Inc. v. National Union Fire Insurance Co., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision granting summary judgment to the insurer and finding, under...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

There’s Coverage for That? The ‘Ins & Outs’ of Personal & Advertising Injury Coverage

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Michael Cannata and Frank Misiti wrote, “There’s Coverage for That? The ‘Ins and Outs’ of Personal and Advertising Injury Coverage” for the Summer 2025 issue of USLAW Magazine. The story explains “personal and advertising”...more

Zelle  LLP

Insurer Escapes Duty to Defend Obligation in Toll Road Pile-Up Lawsuits Under Designated Work Exclusion and Professional Liability...

Zelle LLP on

On March 19, 2025, Judge Reed O’Connor in Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. N. Tarrant Infrastructure LLC, No. 4:23-cv-01043-O, 2025 WL 863470 (N.D. Tex. Mar. 19, 2025) held that under the Eight-Corners Rule, Liberty...more

Tyson & Mendes LLP

But I Didn’t Mean to Do It …

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As a father of three children, I have become intimately familiar with this defense to all manner of allegations (which, yes, often involve property damage). When it comes to coverage disputes, you often see insureds making...more

Akerman LLP

Georgia Federal Court Applies “Fungi or Bacteria” Exclusion and Holds Insurer Owed No Duty to Defend Mold Exposure Wrongful Death...

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In Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance Company v. Hampton Court, L.P., et al. the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted an insurer's motion for judgment on the pleadings that it owed...more

Wiley Rein LLP

Electronic Data Exclusion Precludes Coverage for Payment Card Data Breach

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, applying Georgia law, has held that the electronic data exclusion in commercial general liability (CGL) policies issued to a retail store company precluded coverage...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

December 2024 Insurance Update

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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

Goldberg Segalla

[Webinar] An Ohio Primer: Critical Insurance Coverage Issues in the Buckeye State - April 9th, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT

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Ohio presents unique challenges to practitioners handling insurance claims in the state. Join Goldberg Segalla partners Michael A. Hamilton and Sean P. Hvisdas as they host a live, interactive webinar on some of the most...more

Carlton Fields

New York Federal Judge Finds No Duty to Defend Based on War Exclusion’s Insurrection Clause

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In Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. The Western Union Co. et al., No. 22-CV-0557 (JMF) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 22, 2022), a federal judge in New York granted Hartford Fire Insurance Company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and motion...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

New York Insurance Coverage Law Update - November 2022

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Court Finds That Defense Documents Must Be Produced Because Placed “At Issue” by Late Notice- In this declaratory judgment action, American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance Company sought insurance coverage on behalf of its...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Keeping Insurers In the Game: Navigating New Jersey’s Duty to Defend After a Recent Supreme Court Opinion

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Companies purchase insurance for litigation protection in the form of an insurer’s duty to defend lawsuits. Under New Jersey law, the duty to defend begins with the filing of a complaint that includes allegations that might...more

Rivkin Radler LLP

Insurance Update - July 2022

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Our July Insurance Update is here. This is what we discuss. “Hoosier” daddy? When a Little Daddy’s bouncer chased a drunk patron from Big Daddy’s parking lot, who knew it would lead to the Indiana Supreme Court...more

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Finds Employer’s Liability Exclusion Ambiguous Under Alabama Law

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The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision that an insurer had a duty to defend its insureds under a commercial general liability policy in an action arising out of a catastrophic explosion at a pyrotechnics...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fifth Circuit Finds Potential Coverage for Data Breach; Interprets “Publication” Broadly

Cozen O'Connor on

Using general contract interpretation principles, the Fifth Circuit reversed summary judgment in favor of an insurer and found a duty to defend Landry’s in a data breach lawsuit. Landry’s Inc. v. The Insurance Company of the...more

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

Just How Absolute is the Absolute Pollution Exclusion?

Despite the myriad CERCLA cases on the books, there is little – if any – jurisprudence dissecting the so-called “absolute pollution exclusion” in a comprehensive general liability insurance policy and the insurers’ obligation...more

Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP

In South Carolina, Documents Outside the Pleadings May Be Utilized to Exclude Coverage

October 27, 2020 - In third party coverage matters, the traditional test to determine whether an insured is entitled to a defense under a commercial general liability policy is the Comparison or Four-Corners Test....more

Wiley Rein LLP

Insurer Waived Right to Assert Policy Exclusion First Raised in Answer to Declaratory Judgment Complaint

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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, applying New York law, has concluded that an insurer waived the right to assert a policy exclusion as a coverage defense in a declaratory judgment action after...more

Carlton Fields

The No Corners Rule? New York Federal Court Holds No Duty to Defend Where There Is No Possible Legal or Factual Basis for...

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Under New York law, an insurer’s duty to defend ends if it establishes as a matter of law that there is no possible factual or legal basis on which it might eventually be obligated to indemnify its insured. This rule was...more

Carlton Fields

An Equitable Exception To the Four Corners Rule: The Eleventh Circuit Looks Beyond Operative Complaint To Find No Duty To Defend

Carlton Fields on

Under Florida law, similar to that of other states, an insurer’s duty to defend is generally determined solely by the allegations found within the four corners of the complaint. Florida courts, however, recognize an exception...more

Carlton Fields

Iowa Supreme Court Finds Fatality Allegedly Caused by Gross Negligence Was a Potential “Accident” Under CGL Policy

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Coverage under most commercial general liability (CGL) policies applies only to liability arising from an “accident.” As such, injury or damage that an insured “expected or intended” to occur is not covered....more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Absolute Pollution Exclusion/Quarry Operations: Federal Appellate Court Addresses Coverage for Unplanned Discharge of Rock Fines

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Court”) addressed in a January 17th opinion a company’s umbrella insurance policy’s absolute pollution exclusion. See Eastern Concrete Materials, Inc., v. Ace...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Fifth Circuit Decision Excluding Coverage under Pollution Exclusion for Damage to Stream Caused by Rock Fines

In a sweeping decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit extended the absolute pollution exclusion to the unplanned discharge of “rock fines,” pellets produced during quarry operations, and denied coverage for...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Court Finds That “Care, Custody Or Control” Exclusion Did Not Negate Coverage For General Contractor Who Shared Jobsite...

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

Womble Bond Dickinson

Eleventh Circuit Holds TCPA Lawsuit Did Not Fall Within Coverage for “Accidents” Under Insurance Policy

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The Eleventh Circuit recently held that sending a fax in violation of the TCPA is not considered an “accident” in determining whether coverage existed for TCPA claims under a commercial general liability insurance policy. ...more

Carlton Fields

A Lesson in Sticking to Your Guns: Court Reverses Course and Finds No Duty to Defend or Indemnify on a Motion for Reconsideration

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On May 1, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia held that a firearms exclusion in a general liability insurance policy applied to bar coverage for an underlying action arising from a shooting at the...more

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