duty to defend News

Farm Bureau Must Defend Insured in Deadly Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in Carolina

What started out as festive time at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair in 2019 ended with 96 people hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease. Four of them died. The tragedy in Fletcher, North Carolina, made national headlines. Multiple victims filed suit …

Sotheby’s, Russians, Theft: Insurer Must Defend in High-End Miami Realty Suit

In the glittering world of high-end south Florida real estate, One Sotheby’s International Realty is known as one of the biggest players in the market. This month, the firm is handling the rental of NBA superstar Kevin Durant’s penthouse in …

Appeals Court Rules Insurers Not Obligated to Defend Opioid Distributor McKesson

The role drug distributor McKesson Corp. had in the opioid crisis was no accident, meaning the company is not entitled to defense costs related to litigation against it. McKesson Corp. appealed a district court’s ruling that subsidiaries of AIG and …

Hawaii Supreme Court Rules Insurers Can’t Recoup Defense Costs from Insureds

An insurer cannot seek reimbursement from its insured for the cost of defending a lawsuit after learning that no coverage was owed unless the policy says it can, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled. “Hawaii’s stout duty to defend clashes with …

No Duty to Defend Doesn’t Mean No Duty to Indemnify, 5th Circuit Rules

A federal appeals court has clarified, at least under the realm of Texas law, when an insurer has a duty to indemnify – even if it has no duty to defend a tort action against the insured thanks to an …

Time Lag Does Not End Insurer’s Duty to Defend, Court Rules

A federal court in New York has reiterated that a time lag between the date a trip-and-fall accident occurred and when the conduct alleged to have caused it took place does not itself relieve an insurer of its duty to …

No Coverage for Alabama Builder Who Delayed Notice of Construction Defect Claims

An Alabama federal court ruled this week that a builder’s commercial general liability insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify against two construction defect lawsuits it faces, because it didn’t notify the insurer in a timely fashion. The U.S. …

Sex Abuse Victim Can’t Challenge Ruling that Insurer Had No Duty to Defend

A victim of childhood sexual abuse cannot challenge a trial court’s decision that an insurer had no duty to defend her abuser from a lawsuit, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The appellate panel on Tuesday …

Texas Supreme Court Validates Exception to 8-Corners Rule

For more than 50 years, insurers have known that their duty to defend a Texas policyholder from a lawsuit must be decided based only on the language of the insurance contract and the allegations made by the plaintiff. The so-called …

5th Circuit: Insurer Has Duty to Defend Lawsuit Over Leaky Roof Despite Policy Exclusion

Siplast Inc., a Dallas-area manufacturer of roof membranes, purchased a liability policy that excluded coverage for any damages to its own work or products. That doesn’t mean the insurer has no duty defend its policyholder against a lawsuit that alleges …