In 2013 the Washington Supreme Court found that an insurance company’s claim file was presumptively not privileged in disputes between insurance companies and their insureds unless the insurance company could demonstrate that the attorney-client aspects of the file involved the …
Some insurance policies do not specifically define the term “disparagement” in the policy. When the term “disparagement” is not defined, the courts will come up with a workable definition. As an example, in Lexmark International, Inc. v. Transportation Insurance Co., …
The Nebraska Supreme Court in Barnes v. American Standard Insurance Company of Wisconsin, 297 Neb. 331, 900 N.W.2d 22 (2017) recently considered whether an insurance company’s cancellation of an auto policy by certified mail permitted the granting of summary judgment …
The Kentucky Supreme Court recently found that an insurance company’s homeowners’ policy did not cover termite damage that did not result in the home’s collapse. The insured presented a claim for termite infestation that was discovered throughout the insured home …
Where insurance policies require written consent from the insurer to enter into any settlement agreement, it is important to remember to ask, “May I?” Failure to do so may void coverage. That is what occurred recently in One West Bank, …
Under Minn. Stat. §604.18, insureds are entitled to recover taxable costs when an insurance company unreasonably denies insurance benefits. The statute provides a remedy of one-half of the “proceeds awarded” that are in excess of an amount offered by the …
In One Beacon America Insurance Co. v. Celanese Corp., 94 Mass. App. Ct. 382, 84 N.E.3d 867 (Mass. App. 2017), the Massachusetts Court of Appeals held that insurance companies have the right to control the defense of the insured after …
In the past, Rhode Island courts have upheld insurance policy provisions that require insureds to commence legal action against the insurance company within a time period that is less than the legislatively-enacted statute of limitations. See, e.g., National Refrigeration, Inc. …
The question of whether carbon monoxide constitutes a pollutant for purposes of a standard policy pollution exclusion has been mixed among the courts. Whether carbon monoxide constitutes pollution is jurisdiction-specific and depends on whether the jurisdiction adopts a traditional or …
Under Oregon statute O.R.S. §742.056, an insurance company’s investigation of a loss or claim under the policy does not estop the insurance company from asserting any provision of the policy or any defense that the insurer may have under the …