News & Analysis as of

Reversal Appeals Insurance Litigation

Cozen O'Connor

Fourth DCA Reverses Jury Verdict Due to Improper Admission of Claims Handling and Bad Faith Evidence

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In Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Naze, No. 4D2024-0098 (Fla. 4th DCA June 4, 2025), the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a jury verdict in favor of the insured, holding that the trial court improperly...more

Cozen O'Connor

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

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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

Cozen O'Connor

A Jury Must Find An Insurer Acted Unreasonably In Order To Find Bad Faith Failure to Settle

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On March 8, 2021 the California Court of Appeal, reversing a $10 million verdict against Farmers, found that a jury must specifically find unreasonable acts by an insurer to support a “failure to settle” bad faith...more

Cozen O'Connor

Claims Handling: Questions Are the Answer

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The key issue in insurance bad faith litigation is whether the claims professional reasonably handled the claim. Throughout the claims-handling process, the claims professional should constantly ask him-or-herself whether the...more

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP

The LHD/ERISA Advisor - October 2020: Ninth Circuit Finds ERISA Complaint Sufficiently Alleges Insurer had Waived Anti-Assignment...

In Cal. Spine & Neurosurgery Inst. v. Blue Cross of Cal., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 20533 (9th Cir. June 20, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that a surgical provider's complaint sufficiently alleged that Blue Cross of California...more

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC

VSC Rules "Date Of Loss" Not Ambiguous

Brillman v. New England Guaranty Ins. Co., 2020 VT 16 (Feb. 21, 2020) - In this insurance coverage decision, the Vermont Supreme Court determined that the “date of loss,” which starts the clock running on the one-year...more

Payne & Fears

Ninth Circuit Rejects Excess Insurer's Attempt to Dispute Exhaustion of Underlying Insurance

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This week, in AXIS Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corp., ____ F.3d ____, 2020 WL 5509743 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), the Ninth Circuit addressed an important question of first impression: When can an excess insurer...more

Payne & Fears

Withholding Claims Notes Results in Severe Sanctions

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In Garcia v. Awerbach, 136 Nev. Adv. Op. 27 (May 21, 2020), the Supreme Court of Nevada reinstated a severe discovery sanction against a defendant who withheld a critical insurance claims note. In doing so, the Supreme Court...more

Carlton Fields

The Three “Musts” for a Competent Affidavit or Declaration

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Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal recently issued a decision that serves as a reminder not to take for granted a proposition that most practicing attorneys regularly encounter: a motion for summary judgment must be...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

White and Williams LLP

Illinois Appellate Court Clarifies What Is and Is Not an “Occurrence” in the Construction Defect Context

On December 31, 2019, the First District Illinois Appellate Court issued its decision in Owners Insurance Company v. Precision Painting & Decorating Corporation, clarifying what does and does not constitute “property damage”...more

White and Williams LLP

Establishing Proximate Cause Where Both Roads Lead to the Defendant

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In Westfield Ins. Group v. Pure Renovations, LLC, 2019-Ohio-4773, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 4829, the Court of Appeals of Ohio considered whether the lower court properly granted the defendant’s summary judgment motion. In its...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

A Recent “Event” in Wisconsin: Appellate Court Rules That a Commonly Used London Market “Occurrence” Definition Is Ambiguous

In recent years, Wisconsin generally has been a pro-policyholder jurisdiction when it comes to long-tail environmental coverage cases. That trend continues with a decision by a Wisconsin appellate court in a case involving...more

White and Williams LLP

PTSD May Be Covered As “Bodily Injury” If It Resulted From Physical Injuries, Pennsylvania Appeals Court Holds

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It has long been the rule in Pennsylvania that a mental or psychological injury generally does not constitute “bodily injury,” as defined in most standard insurance policies, unless that mental or psychological injury results...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Empire State of Mind: New York Bad Faith Update

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WHILE THERE REMAINS NO BAD FAITH CAUSE OF ACTION IN NEW YORK, A RECENT APPELLATE DIVISION CASE OUT OF THE FIRST DEPARTMENT MAKES PLAIN THAT AN INSURED NEED NOT MEET A HEIGHTENED PLEADING STANDARD WITH RESPECT TO CONSEQUENTIAL...more

Carlton Fields

Through the Looking Glass: Damages “Warts” Wreck Injunction Class

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Mirror, mirror on the class, are damages what you really asked? The Eleventh Circuit reversed an interlocutory order certifying an injunction class, rejecting the plaintiffs’ ploy “to lop off all the damages-based warts...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Federal Appeals Court Punishes Policyholder for Giving Too Much Notice

When a company receives a claim or lawsuit, it is critical to provide timely notice to its insurers. But when the claim is first made, sufficient facts may not yet be known to indicate which policy will respond. Many policies...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Damages for Permit Revocation Constitute Covered “Loss of Use”

Insurers often claim “economic damages” are not covered under a standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy. The Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in Thee Sombrero, Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 28 Cal. App....more

Hogan Lovells

UK: We didn’t start the fire: Motor insurer not liable for property damage caused by car repair fire on private premises

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In R&S Pilling t/a Phoenix Engineering v UK Insurance Limited [2019] UKSC 16, the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether or not a motor insurer should be liable for property damage caused by a fire which was started...more

Patton Sullivan Brodehl LLP

Loss of Use can be “Property Damage” under Insurance Policies

General liability insurance policies normally cover “property damage.” Physical injury to, or outright destruction of, property almost always fits within policy coverage. But what about situations when the property is not...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fort Worth Court of Appeal Reverses Judgment Awarding Bad Faith Damages Against Insurer

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While the November 8, 2018 Court of Appeal of Texas, Fort Worth Division opinion reverses a trial court’s judgment on grounds of legal insufficiency and standing, the court’s analysis and application of current Texas bad...more

Butler Snow LLP

Contracts May “Legally” Obligate a Party to Pay, Even Without a Court Judgment

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Time and again, courts have been tasked with construing ambiguous and inconsistent terms in contracts. Recently, the Sixth Circuit revisited the issue of interpreting contractual language in Dark Horse Express, LLC v. Lancer...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Court of Appeals Holds Anti-Stacking Provision Inapplicable in Policies Issued by "Affiliated Insurers"

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The Holding - In Hanfelder v. Geico Indem. Co., WL 2018 WL 2315949 (May 22, 2018), the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment granted to an Insurer because the Policy’s “imprecise” anti-stacking language did...more

Carlton Fields

Dot The I’s And Cross The T’s: The Importance Of Clarity In Claim Communications And The Availability Of Punitive Damages For An...

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The Georgia Court of Appeals recently made waves in Hughes v. First Acceptance Insurance Company of Georgia, Inc., 343 Ga. App. 693 (2017). First, it aggrandized the role of a jury in determining the existence of an offer to...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Spilman Alert - Breaking Insights: Shutting Another Door on Suing Insurance Companies in West Virginia

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recently closed an avenue for bad faith claims. In this case, the insured, CMD, sued its own liability insurance company, State Auto, for not settling the claims asserted against it...more

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