A commentary on insurance coverage issues in Hawaii and beyond
Finding the exclusion relied upon by the insurer was ambiguous, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling that a duty to defend was owed. Mariam, Inc. v. Universal Underwriters Ins. Co., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15658 (4th Cir. May 15, 2020)
Tamara Darvish Fallahi sued her father, his company, and…
The Eighth Circuit found there was no coverage for the insured's faulty workmanship. Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co., S.I. v. Mid-American Grain Distributors, LLC, 958 F.3d 748 (8th Cir. 2020).
Mid-American contracted with Lehenbauer to design and construct a grain storage and distribution facility for Lehenbauer. Before the work was…
The court found that the policy's anti-sequential clause barred coverage for damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Estate of Doerfler v. Fed. Ins. Co., 2020 N.J. Sup. Unpub. LEXIS 920 (May 14, 2020).
The insureds held identical homeowners policies from Chubb and Federal Insurance Company. Damage resulting from flood was not…
The Federal District Court, District of Hawaii, found the earth movement exclusion barred coverage for the contractor when a landslide damaged the property. North River Ins. Co. v. H.K. Constr. Corp., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90110 (D. Haw. May 22, 2020).
Bruce and Yulin Bingle sued HK for damage caused…
The Washington Supreme Court found that a title insurer breached its duty to defend when it was discovered that a Native American tribe had rights to access the land under a treaty with the State of Washington. Robbins v. Mason County Title Insurance Co., 2020 Wash. LEXIS 288 (Wash. May 7, 2020).…
The Eleventh Circuit, following Georgia law, found the cause theory meant there was a single occurrence in a multi-car accident. Grange Mut. Cas. Co. v Slaughter, 2020 U.S. App LEXIS 14057 (11th Cir. May 1, 2020).
Driving a truck owned by Four Seasons Trucking (FST), Mark Lucas crossed the center…
The plaintiff's failure to timely name an expert witness in his bad faith action led to sanctions being awarded against him in favor of the insurer. Black v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 2020 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 2477 (Cal. Ct. App. April 23, 2020).
After Black's claim was denied by…
In another round of litigation involving coverage issues between Montrose Chemical Corporation and its insurers, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Montrose, adopting vertical exhaustion of excess policies. Montrose Chem. Corp. of Calif. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 9 Ca. 5th 215 (2020).
In 1990…
The multi-peril policy did not provide coverage for ransom paid to a hacker in order to retrieve its servers. G&G Oil Co. of Ind. v. Cont' W. Ins. Co., 2020 Ind. App. LEXIS 126 (March 31, 2020).
G&G Oil Company held a multi-peril commercial policy from Continental. The Commercial Crime…
