February 2011

   Whether coverage existed for property damage occurring after the subcontract finished its work on the project was the issue presented in United Fire & Cas. Co. v. Boulder Plaza Residential, LLC, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 1694 (Jan. 27, 2011).

   Boulder Plaza Residential, LLC ("BPR"), a real estate developer, and McCrery & Roberts Construction

   In October, we reported here that the Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the cancellation of a policy based on the insured's misrepresentation of the type of vehicle being insured.  The Hawaii Supreme Court recently affirmed the ICA's decision.  See Farmer v. Pacific Speciality Ins. Co., 2011 Haw. LEXIS 28 (Haw. Feb. 7, 2011).

   Farmer

   Whether the insurer was obligated to indemnify its insured for potential liability under a contractual indemnity provision was at issue in Farmers Ins. Exchange v. RNK, Inc., 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 1255 (1st Cir. Jan. 21, 2011).

   RNK, a telephone company, and Ripple, a company providing conference services including chat lines, entered

   This past Friday, Judge Richard R. Clifton of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave an informative and entertaining presentation to the Litigation section of the Hawaii State Bar Association.  The title of the presentation was, “Practice Pointers for Appeals: Procedure, Briefing and Oral Argument.”

   Judge Clifton started with some personal background. 

   This year’s annual ABA, Section of Litigation, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee CLE Seminar will be held in Tucson on March 3-5, 2011.  The conference will offer a number of timely, comprehensive sessions on such insurance-related issues as coverage for natural and not-so-natural disasters, litigation over construction claims, emerging issues in the health care industry

   This post from today's BusinessInsurance.com addresses legislation introduced in South Carolina seeking to extend coverage for construction defects under CGL policies.  We posted on a similar effort underway in Hawaii to expand coverage for construction defects under SB1194.

   Similar to Hawaii's effort through SB1194 to correct the Intermediate Court of Appeal's decision in

   In Group Builders, Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co., 123 Haw. 142, 231 P.3d 67 (Haw. Ct. App. 2010) [decision here], the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals determined that construction defects did not arise from an occurrence and therefore were not covered under a CGL policy.  [See our Group Builders’ post here].  Bills were recently

   The plaintiff was a developer of a subdivision.  See Standard Pacific of the Carolinas, LLC v. Amerisure Ins. Co., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 963 (D. S.C. Jan. 5, 2011).  Pursuant to a contract, it hired Matthews Construction as general contractor to build the subdivision.  Matthews agreed to providea general liability policy from Amerisure naming