If a messenger slips and falls on the sidewalk while delivering a business document to a person working at home, is the subsequent claim covered by the person’s homeowners insurance policy? With the COVID-19 pandemic causing more people to work ...

Tagged with: COVID-19 Employment Insurance Remote work

Where Skillets’ insurer denied the restaurant chain reimbursement for COVID-19 related losses, neither the virus nor the Florida governor’s closure orders constituted a direct physical loss under an all-risk policy interpreted by Florida law because neither physically altered the restaurants. ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the insurance carrier for a medical practice sought a declaration that the doctor’s alleged modification of medical records violated coverage conditions and thus it had no duty to defend the underlying medical malpractice suit, the coverage suit was dismissed. ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In declining to wade into a dispute about the scope of coverage available for an underlying wrongful death suit, the court noted that the suit is pending, no judgment has been entered and there was a risk in issuing an ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon U.S. District Court - Western District

Although the insurance carrier may have considered its own interests in settling the underlying claims, because it also considered the policyholder’s interests, its conduct did not violate the duty of good faith and fair dealing or support a claim under ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Insurance

Where the adult children of the decedent were entitled to the $500,000 proceeds of her life insurance policy, they did not require a trust or a trustee to monitor distribution of benefits because both are responsible adults pursuing graduate degrees. ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the insurance plan covered only the law firm owner as an insured subscriber, it was not an “employee benefit plan” under the language in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and the Department of Labor’s regulatory interpretations. ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Roderick C. Young U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a vehicle involved in an accident was being driven by someone with whom the insured car dealership had a financial relationship, which included use of the dealership’s license plates, because the vehicle was not being used for an activity ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the plaintiffs seeking coverage for the fire damage to their home failed to name the correct defendant within the time required, because the proper entity within the corporate family had notice of the suit and would not suffer prejudice, ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

Where an “all risk” policy included accidental or fortuitous “direct physical loss[es],” and it is plausible that a fortuitous “direct physical loss” could mean the property is uninhabitable, inaccessible or dangerous because of intangible or nonstructural sources, a spa that ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Raymond A. Jackson U.S. District Court - Eastern District