What a difference a word makes! Today’s words are “the,” “an,” “any,” and especially “you.” Most Commercial General Liability policies include a coverage enhancement known as a “separation of insureds” or “severability of interests” clause. This clause states that the policy’s coverage is to apply “separately” to each insured against…
New York’s Martin Act has a lot of Wall Street and energy industry companies concerned about potential investigations into their respective stances on climate change. In the client alert “When Attorneys General Attack,” colleagues Sheila Harvey, Joseph Jean, Carolina Fornos and Benjamin Tievsky examine the act and discuss strategies for…
They do some things differently in London. But just because they have different customs across the pond doesn’t mean they get to play by different rules—at least not in American courts. That was the message a federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York delivered when she ruled…
The recent decision of Allied Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Metro North Condominium Associates highlights why only a minority of jurisdictions still hold to the fiction that construction defects cannot give rise to an “occurrence” covered under a CGL policy. It also shows why construction companies and other companies…
Just as the famous 1897 New York Sun editorial playfully reassured the skeptical eight-year-old Virginia, so too a recent Fourth Circuit decision should reassure policyholders in Virginia (and nationwide). Despite insurers’ skepticism, general liability insurance may in fact cover cyber events. On April 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
In the client alert The “Panama Papers” and the Secret World of Shell Corporations, Insurance attorneys Joseph Jean and Alexander Hardiman along with their colleagues Carolina Fornos, Mark Hellerer, Maria Galeno, William Sullivan, Nancy Fischer, Nora Burke and Danielle Vrabie discuss a leak of 11.5 million documents from a law…
Sometimes a phrase is repeated so often that we forget what it meant in the first place. Perhaps that is the case with the phrase “the duty to defend is broader than the duty indemnify.” This statement has been made by courts frequently and repeatedly over at least the past…
Spring is upon us, which means the return of baseball. It seems only fitting that with a new season of America’s pastime just underway, we discuss another area where the performance in the lead-off position can be vital: leading off the claims process by providing notice to your insurer. Say…
This post is a continuation of my top ten recommendations for negotiating your cyber insurance policy. The first five tips are in Part 1. Consider the Allocation of Defense Costs Where both covered and non-covered claims are asserted in the same lawsuit against the insured, an issue often arises regarding…
North Texas never felt an earthquake until 2008. Since then, well over one hundred have been recorded—including a whopping five earthquakes confirmed in a single day in April 2015. Oklahoma had 585 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in 2014, which rose to 907 in 2015. Areas spread across the…