100% Umbrella Recovery Despite Denial Just Weeks Earlier
The client, a large international manufacturer, was a defendant in a high-value commercial dispute regarding the alleged failure of its emergency shut-down component incorporated into the engine of a naval vessel purchased by a foreign government. We assisted the client in securing a defense from the primary carrier. After 10 years of litigation, the case settled for a substantial sum that exhausted the available primary policy and implicated the umbrella carrier’s limits. The primary carrier agreed to fund the entire settlement despite the presence of “your product” and “your work” exclusions in the primary policy. However, the umbrella carrier denied the claim based on these exclusions. We challenged the denial asserting bad faith. Within weeks of our challenge to the denial, the umbrella carrier withdrew its denial and funded the entire balance of the settlement. The client recovered 100% of its defense and indemnity for the claim without having to resort to coverage litigation and at minimal cost.