Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled yesterday that a construction company's builder's risk policy issued by Assurance Company of America ("Assurance") applied to cover a fire loss at a home under construction, even though the prospective purchasers of the home were residing in the home at the time of the fire and had already recovered from their homeowner's policy.

Hunton partner, Syed Ahmad , was quoted yesterday in a Law360 feature discussing how corporate policyholders can maximize their D&O insurance coverage. As Ahmad explains, "[g]iven the ever-changing regulatory landscape, directors and officers are getting involved in matters earlier and earlier and in a wider range of situations than before.” As a consequence, directors and officers should be looking for insurance that affords the broadest possible protection against the most diverse range of claims that the company is likely to face. One way to achieve this is use of a broad ...

Hunton partner, Syed Ahmad , was quoted yesterday in a Law360 feature discussing how corporate policyholders can maximize their D&O insurance coverage. As Ahmad explains, "[g]iven the ever-changing regulatory landscape, directors and officers are getting involved in matters earlier and earlier and in a wider range of situations than before.” As a consequence, directors and officers should be looking for insurance that affords the broadest possible protection against the most diverse range of claims that the company is likely to face. One way to achieve this is use of a broad ...

Last week’s torrential rains have caused widespread flooding in West Virginia and surrounding areas. It is important that policyholders in these and other areas remain mindful of the substantial benefits that may be available to them for resulting economic and physical losses under ordinary business insurance policies. Policyholders also should be mindful of the interplay between coverage for flood under business insurance policies and assistance that may be available from state and federal agencies (e.g., FEMA). Finally, policyholders should stand ready to enforce their ...

This week, rock band Foo Fighters sued certain Lloyd’s market insurers for failure to pay under two policies – a Cancellation Policy and a Terrorism Policy – for losses arising from the cancellation of several performances last year resulting from lead singer Dave Grohl’s injuries and the ISIS Paris attack.

On Tuesday, Syed Ahmad and Jennifer White published an article in Risk Management magazine about how commercial general liability (CGL) policies may help policyholders looking to recover attorney’s fees or fund settlements in trademark infringement litigation. Historically, like the Johnny Lee song “Lookin’ for Love,” CGL policies were the wrong place to look for coverage, and insurers raised often successful defenses to covering such trademark infringement cases under CGL policies. Or, policyholders would avoid CGL insurance altogether in favor of intellectual ...

In a June 1, 2016 decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in National Fire Insurance Co. of Hartford et al. v. E. Mishan & Sons Inc. required CNA Financial Corporation to defend E. Mishan & Sons, Inc.("Emson") – best known for its "As Seen on TV" products –in two class actions alleging a conspiracy to trap customers into recurring credit card charges and that Emson sold private consumer information that it obtained through its product sales.

Hunton & Williams' insurance practice head, Walter Andrews, was quoted in a Law360 article yesterday regarding the confusion that is likely to result from a federal bankruptcy judge's decision in Rapid-American Corp. v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Co., where the court concluded that a majority of excess insurers owe no coverage to Rapid-American Corp. for underlying asbestos claims until the company exhausts the limits of its underlying primary and excess coverage through actual payment, not just accrued liability. According the Andrews, "the public policy clearly ...

Two of three of Rapid-American Corp.'s excess liability insurers do not have to respond to underlying asbestos claims unless and until all underlying coverage is exhausted by the payment of claims, says Judge Bernstein of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in a June 7, 2016 decision. Rapid-American has been involved in asbestos litigation since 1974 and settled disputes with many of its underlying insurers, but an amount sufficient to reach its excess coverage policies has not yet been paid. Rapid-American argued that it was not necessary for the primary policies' underlying limits to be exhausted by actual payment before insurers' excess liability coverage attaches.

Hunton & Williams insurance lawyers, Mike Levine and Sergio Oehninger, were quoted today in a Law360 article analyzing the impact of the recent decision in P.F. Chang's bid for coverage for certain losses stemming from a 2013 cyber breach. In a June 1, 2016 blog post, Levine and Oehninger criticized the court's decision and forewarned policyholders that disputes of this sort are likely to be common, given the continually evolving nature of cyber coverages. According to Levine in a subsequent comment, "until insurance markets arrive at policy language that clearly sets forth the ...

On May 27, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington allowed a declaratory judgment action filed by the Seattle Times Company for excess coverage to proceed to trial despite the insurer's arguments that the underlying policies had not been exhausted.

In a May 31, 2016 decision, a federal court in Arizona rejected P.F. Chang's attempt to recover an additional $2 million it paid following a 2013 breach in which hackers obtained and posted on the Internet approximately 60,000 credit card numbers belonging to P.F. Chang's customers.  P.F. Chang's was insured under a "CyberSecurity by Chubb Policy," which it had purchased from Federal Insurance Company for an annual premium of $134,000.  On its website, Federal marketed the policy as "a flexible insurance solution designed by cyber risk experts to address the full breadth of risks associated with doing business in today's technology-dependent world" including "consequential loss resulting from cyber security breaches."