Statutory penalty interest can be a significant exposure for insurers in some jurisdictions. A court’s recent ruling in Alticor Global Holdings Inc., et al. v. American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co., et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-388, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130101 (W.D. Mich. June 8, 2022), illustrates the potentially steep cost. Continue Reading Michigan Coverage Dispute Highlights Steep Cost of Statutory Penalty Interest

Delaware state and federal courts have issued several important rulings on allocation under D&O insurance policies. Most recently, in SSC Technologies Holdings, Inc. v. Endurance Assurance Corp., No. N20C-01-088 EMD CCLD, 2022 Del. Super. LEXIS 164 (Del. Super., April 26, 2022) (Davis, J.), the court declined to apply the “larger settlement rule” for allocation when there are covered and uncovered matters. Continue Reading Recent Rulings in Delaware Courts on Allocation Under D&O Policies

A trial court in New York has granted summary judgment for a group of D&O insurers seeking a declaration that policies issued to AR Capital, LLC (“AR Capital”) do not provide coverage for settlements and consent judgments in actions alleging false and misleading SEC filings by VEREIT, Inc. (“VEREIT”), which is a real estate investment trust sponsored and managed by AR Capital. See XL Specialty Ins. Co. v. AR Capital, LLC, Case No. 650018/2019, 2021 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 444 (N.Y. Supr. Ct., Feb. 2, 2021). The court’s ruling enforces the insured capacity limitation within the D&O policies’ definition of Wrongful Act, the exception of SEC disgorgement amounts from covered Loss, and an insured capacity exclusion.

Continue Reading New York Trial Court Enforces D&O Policy’s Insured Capacity Limitations and Exception of SEC Disgorgement Amounts from Covered Loss

After the Fourth Circuit held that a commercial general liability (“CGL”) policy could cover a data incident in 2016, confusion arose as to whether CGL policies would continue to cover data breaches. A recent California lawsuit by the smart-TV maker Vizio against two of its insurance companies shows that this confusion also arises when an insured invokes CGL policies to cover litigation arising from alleged data misuse.

Continue Reading Somebody’s Watching Me: A Recent Smart-TV Lawsuit Seeks Insurance Coverage for Privacy Litigation

A split appellate court in Pennsylvania has held that an insurer is estopped from asserting a policy exclusion that it failed to expressly raise in its reservation of rights letter. See Selective Way Ins. Co. v. MAK Servs., No. 1289 EDA 2019, 2020 Pa. Super. LEXIS 342 (Pa. Super. Ct. April 24, 2020). The court’s ruling is an important reminder that failure to properly reserve the insurer’s right to deny coverage can sometimes have significant consequences.

Continue Reading Pennsylvania Court Estops Insurer From Asserting Coverage Defense That Was Not Identified in Its Reservation of Rights Letter

Coverage litigation relating to liability claims arising out of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) has been relatively non-existent. One reason for this may be insurers’ reasonable conclusion that an exclusion introduced in 2006 in response to litigation arising under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) applies to this new genre of privacy litigation. That exclusion, generically referred as the Violation of Statutes Exclusion, was the insurance industry response to decisions from around the country finding that TCPA violations qualified as “personal injury” under liability policies. The exclusion evolved over time and now includes a catch-all provision that applies to violations of federal or state statutes or ordinances or regulations other than the enumerated statutes referenced in the exclusion—the TCPA, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). The Illinois court’s opinion in Westbend Mutual Insurance Ins. Co. v. Krishna Schaumburg Tan, Inc., 2020 Ill.App.(1st) 191384, is an example of how important the wording of that catch-all provision is for insurers seeking to rely on it to exclude coverage for BIPA violations.

Continue Reading Not All Violation of Statutes Exclusions Are Created Equal

In November, the Texas Supreme Court accepted a certified question from the Fifth Circuit directly calling into question the continued vitality of the well-known “eight corners rule,” under which a liability insurer can only consider the four corners of the live pleading and the four corners of its policy in deciding whether to defend its insured. As we noted in this blog when the Texas Supreme Court accepted the certified question, the case involved an ATV accident in which Jayden Mills, the young driver, was killed. His mother sued the Richardses, alleging they were negligent in failing to supervise and instruct Jayden.

Continue Reading Still Only Eight Corners?: The Texas Supreme Court Decides Richards v. State Farm

That headline appeared Saturday in Music Business Worldwide, a trade paper, as well as in numerous other journals ranging from Variety to the Austin Chronicle. If you dug a little deeper, you would see that there was cancellation insurance for the ten-day event. But that coverage was excluded for bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics.

Continue Reading Headline: “SXSW Disaster: Event Admits It Has No Insurance for Coronavirus Cancellation”

The United States District Court for the District of Maryland recently held that an insurer must cover an insured’s costs to replace its computer systems following a ransomware attack. The case, National Ink and Stitch, LLC v. State Auto Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Civ. No. SAG-18-2138 (D. Md. January 23, 2020), contains lessons for business and insurance companies going forward.

Continue Reading Maryland Court Orders Insurance Company to Pay Ransomware Damages Under Businessowner’s Policy

Sophisticated cyber crimes have been of great interest in the insurance world for the past decade, but relatively low-tech schemes are also a risk to policyholders and to insurers. Tricking an employee to transfer funds to an unauthorized account is a scam that existed prior to wide-spread use of email and the Internet. For example, the fraudster calls the bank employee, pretending to be his supervisor, authorizing a payment to be made ASAP, or a seller provides “updated” information for a wire transfer at a real estate closing, and the title company sends the funds to the wrong account. More recently, perpetrators of these types of social engineering tricks have made use of email to deliver fake payment instructions, and have infiltrated company or employee accounts to obtain necessary credentials or to create the impression of authority. Depending on the facts of a claim and the terms of specific insurance contracts, policyholders who are the victims of such scams may seek coverage under cyber liability policies or under traditional lines such as crime / fidelity and general liability.

Continue Reading Policyholder Win Under Crime Policy for Social Engineering Scam