John Crane Cannot Prove Exhaustion With Flawed Expert Testimony The Illinois First District Court of Appeals, in an opinion written by Justice Harris, affirmed several trial court rulings against John Crane, Inc. (“JCI”). JCI appealed various pre-trial judgements and orders of the Cook County Circuit Court.  (See previous Insurance Bytes).  On appeal, JCI argued: (1) the trial court erred in... Read More

Yacht Owner Failed to Show Sinking Due to Accident and Not General Disrepair The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, applying federal maritime law, affirmed the decision of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and held that the insured did not satisfy its burden of proving a fortuitous loss to establish coverage. The... Read More

Coverage Action Stay Reversed Because Duty to Defend a Legal Determination The Illinois Appellate Court for the Fourth District, in an opinion written by Justice Cavanagh, applying Illinois law, found that the lower court abused its discretion in granting a motion for a stay in coverage determination. According to the Appellate Court, determining whether the insurer has a duty to... Read More

D & O Insurer Denial Not Vexatious The Illinois Appellate Court for the First District, in an opinion written by Justice Reyes with Justices Gordon and Lampkin concurring, applying Illinois law, affirmed the Circuit Court’s decision that Liberty International Underwriters (“Liberty”) was not unreasonable or vexatious when it denied coverage under a directors and officers (“D&O”) policy because the... Read More

Anticipatory Filing Exception to “First to File” Rule The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in an opinion written by Judge John Robert Blakey, applying the federal rules of civil procedure, dismissed declaratory judgment lawsuits filed by Coherent Economics, LLC (“Coherent”) and by Bradford Cornell and San Marino Business Partners LLC (together as “Cornell”) against Verition... Read More

Adopts Pro Rata Allocation with Unavailability Rule for Asbestos Bodily Injury Claims The Court of Appeals of Maryland, the state’s highest court, granted a writ of certiorari directly after a circuit court decision and upheld that court’s decision to allocate an insurer’s liability for a judgement against its insured via “pro rata” time on the risk allocation across the years... Read More

No Independent Cause of Action for Deficient FRCP 26 Disclosures Even if Induced Settlement The 7th Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge Brennan, reversed the district court and held that failure to disclose insurance coverage under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 cannot give rise to a cause of action for negligent misrepresentation about available insurance coverage. A fatal... Read More

Reinstates Zurich’s Death Benefit Denial Due to Possibility was Caused by Pre-Existing Cardiac Condition and Not Car Accident Even if Not “Best Reading” of Policy The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed the District Court’s finding that American Insurance Company’s (“Zurich”) denial of accidental death benefits was arbitrary and capricious.  The First Circuit found Zurich’s... Read More

Claim by 3rd Party Shot During Murder-Suicide Triggers Duty to Defend The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, applying Pennsylvania law, affirmed the opinion of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and held that Erie Insurance had a duty to defend the estate of its insured in a personal injury lawsuit.  According to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the shooting of a third... Read More

Policyholder Cannot Target One Insurer with “Those Sums” language if Record Provides Factual Basis to Accurately Spread Between Triggered Years In response to a certified question from an Ohio federal district court, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to equate policy language obligating AIG / National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh to pay “those sums” with policies that contain “all... Read More