A commentary on insurance coverage issues in Hawaii and beyond
The court found that the excess carrier had grounds to challenge the primary carrier's allocation of a settlement payment. Scottsdale Ins. Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39771 (9th Cir Dec. 18, 2020).
in the underlying case, Underwriters settled on behalf of the insured law…
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 umbrella insurer was required to drop down when the primary carrier's policy only covered the additional insured when it was vicariously liable for the named insured's operations. Am. States Ins. Co. v. Ins. Co. of the State of Pa., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 585 (9th Cir. Jan. 7, 2020).
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Based upon the primary policy's exclusion, the following form excess policy had no duty to indemnify after the insured reached a settlement in the underlying case. Houston Cas. Co. v. Strata Corp., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 3936 (8th Cir. Feb. 6, 2019).
An employee of Strata fell to his death…
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling that the excess policy was triggered by settlements exhausting the primary policy. Westport Ins. Corp. v. California Cas. Management Company, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 4889 (9th Cir. Feb. 20, 2019).
Doe 1, Doe 2 and Doe 3 filed suit against the insured…
The Texas Supreme Court found that Lloyd's endorsement imposing a cap on liability for a joint venture did not exclude coverage for defense costs. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Houston Cas. Co. et al., 2019 Texas LEXIS 53 (Texas Jan. 25 2019j.
Pursuant to a joint venture agreement, Anadarko held a…
The Ninth Circuit found that under California law, the excess carrier acted in bad faith by refusing to either approve the underlying settlement or take over the defense. Teleflex Med. Inc., v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4996 (9th Cir. March 21, 2017).
The insured, LMA North America, Inc., distributed…
Citing the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision in St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 135 Haw. 449, 353 P.3d 991 (2015), the California Court of Appeal determined that the excess carrier could pursue an equitable subrogation action alleging that the primary insurers' unreasonable failure to settle within policy limits…
The court denied National Union's motion to dismiss the insured's suit to compel a defense under the umbrella policies. San Diego Unified Port Dist. v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88362 (S. D. Cal. July 6, 2016).
National Union sold the insured primary and umbrella policies, promising to defend and…
The municipal league's argument that an umbrella policy should contribute to a settlement funded by a municipal risk-pooling organization failed before the Illinois Court of Appeal. Illinois Municipal League Risk Management Ass'n v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., 2016 Ill. App. LEXIS 45 (Ill. Ct. App. Feb.2, 2016).
Roel Valle, a city…
