OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma federal judge on Oct. 3 granted in part and denied in part an excess insurer's motions for protective orders and to quash depositions in a coverage dispute arising from the death of two of the insured's employees during the course and scope of their employment (Cactus...

OCALA, Fla. - A Florida federal magistrate judge on Oct. 8 denied an insured's motion to compel the production of documents to determine whether two professional liability insurance policy exclusions are ambiguous, finding that the requested interpretative materials are irrelevant in a coverage dispute...

PHILADELPHIA - An excess insurance policy binds the excess insurer and its insured to arbitrate a patent infringement coverage dispute in London pursuant to a condition in the insured's primary policy, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Oct. 11 (Illinois Union Insurance Co. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals...

CHICAGO - A plaintiff's expert who used a reliable and accepted methodology for calculating business interruption damages cannot be excluded because of his choice of data to input, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Oct. 16 (Manpower, Inc. v. Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A Kansas federal magistrate on Oct. 24 granted in part and denied in part an insured's receiver motion to compel an insurer to produce certain documents in a directors and officers liability coverage dispute (BancInsure Inc. v. Carl L. McCaffree, et al., No. 12-2110-KHV, D. Kan...

MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin federal judge on Oct. 25 dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging that mortgage lenders and insurers fraudulently force-placed hazard insurance policies (Colleen Decambaliza v. QBE Holdings Inc., et al., No. 13-cv-286-bbc, W.D. Wis.; 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 153392).

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - An insurer is not required to produce pending claims files related to pollution liability and environmental contamination coverage until after those claims are decided, a Florida federal magistrate judge said Nov. 1 (First Coast Energy LLP v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co., No. 12-281...

CAMDEN, N.J. - An insured's claim that her auto insurance provider uses unlicensed customer service representatives to make policy changes over the phone is not sufficient to support claims for bad faith and breach of contract, a New Jersey federal judge ruled Nov. 7, dismissing most of her putative...

JACKSON, Miss. - A trial court correctly admitted expert testimony that wind from Hurricane Katrina damaged a couple's roof structure, but it wrongly shifted the burden of proof for other damage to the property owners, the Mississippi Supreme Court held Nov. 7 in reversing a directed verdict for...

HOUSTON - A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 12 held that an insurance company's claim notes created after it received a letter from a customer's client asking the company to fund a settlement that would exceed the limits of a policy the plaintiff company had with the client were sufficient for...

SCRANTON, Pa. - Noting that a determination of whether an insurer acted in bad faith does not involve "delving into matters that are scientific in nature," a Pennsylvania federal judge on Nov. 15 granted the insurer's motion to preclude testimony of the plaintiff's bad faith expert...

NEW YORK - The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 affirmed a lower federal court's ruling that underlying claims against a securities broker-dealer insured and its president are precluded from coverage by a professional services exclusion in a directors and officers and private company...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - In answer to a certified question from a federal district court, a majority of the Arkansas Supreme Court held Nov. 21 that the costs of labor may not be depreciated when determining the actual cash value under an indemnity insurance policy (Mark Adams, et al. v. Cameron Mutual Insurance...

NEW ORLEANS - A federal magistrate judge in Louisiana presiding over a trademark infringement lawsuit on Nov. 22 ruled that a third-party defendant's deletion of a folder containing 39 emails warranted the imposition of an adverse inference jury instruction but that its CEO's destruction of an...

TRENTON, N.J. - A trial court judge erred in permitting simultaneous discovery on an underinsured motorist (UIM) claim and a stayed insurance bad faith claim, a New Jersey appellate panel ruled Nov. 21, citing concerns over unnecessary expenditures of time and money, as well as possible prejudice to...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A federal judge in California on Dec. 11 refused to certify a class for nationwide borrowers and subclasses for California and New York consumers over SunTrust Mortgage Inc.'s purchase of force-placed hazard and flood insurance policies, finding that calculating the replacement...

ATLANTA - The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 affirmed a decision requiring an expert to produce certain documents for use in foreign proceedings, finding that the materials did not contain any core opinion work product of Chevron Corp.'s attorneys (Republic of Ecuador, et al. v. Chevron...

SAN FRANCISCO - A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 2 filed an amended opinion vacating injunctions entered by a lower court prohibiting the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) from demanding "up front" reimbursement for secondary payments from...

ATLANTA - Plaintiffs in a putative class action failed to address some of a trial court's alternative holdings for dismissing their claims related to their insurer's purported failure to offer lower rates in compliance with a Florida subsidized reinsurance law, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals...

HOUSTON - An insurance broker's former employee failed to establish a prerequisite to class certification regarding allegations that the broker misplaced customers' personal and sensitive information, a Texas appeals panel ruled Jan. 7, reversing a class certification order (Bliss & Glennon...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A California federal judge on Jan. 13 granted an English insurer's motion to compel arbitration of a coverage dispute, finding that the claims asserted by the owners of an inn and spa were within the scope of the arbitration agreement (Brookdale Inn and Spa, DBA Brookdale Lodge...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Because an accompanying coverage dispute has already been resolved, an Ohio federal magistrate judge on Jan. 14 ordered an insurer to comply with a plaintiff's discovery requests, finding that a bifurcated bad faith claim was now ripe and that the attorney-client privilege did not...

INDIANAPOLIS - A federal magistrate judge in Indiana on Jan. 17 overruled a third party's motion for a protective order over the contents of its investigation file after finding that the information was not subject to the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine (Telamon Corporation v....

CHICAGO - The alleged assignee of certain rights of an insolvent insurer asked the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 for a rehearing en banc of the court's decision denying the appeal of a lower court's dismissal of a motion to compel an international reinsurer to arbitrate a payment...

LAKE CHARLES, La. - A magistrate judge in a federal court in Louisiana on Jan. 15 ordered an insurance company to produce documents related to reinsurance in a suit where a shipyard operator is suing the insurer over alleged damages and business interruption caused by flooding (Leevac Shipbuilders LLC...