Blog

In a unanimous opinion which will impact the plaintiff bar’s strategies for “setting up” liability insurers for “failure to settle” bad faith claims, a California appeals court held in Pinto v. Farmers Ins. Exchange (No. B295742, filed 3/8/21) that a bad faith failure to settle claim requires a finding that the insurer acted unreasonably in some respect. Because the jury verdicts proposed by the plaintiff did not require the jury to make such a finding, the $10 million judgment against the i

In Truck Ins. Exchange v. AMCO Ins. Co. (No. B298798, filed 10/26/20), a California appeals court held that even though the named insured restaurant-lessee was found not liable for premises liability to injured restaurant patrons, the respective liability of the named and additional insured was irrelevant to the landlord-lessor’s coverage for injuries “arising out of” the lessee’s “use” of the premises under a landlords, managers or lessors of premises additional insured endorsement on the le

There are hundreds of declaratory judgment actions, pending from sea to shining sea, addressing coverage for business interruption losses caused by the coronavirus.  With so many actions floating around, we were due for the first decision soon. It has arrived. Yesterday, Michigan Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk (Ingham County) granted the insurer's motion for summary disposition in Gavrilides Management Company vs. Michigan Insurance Company.  At issue was coverage

InBB v. County of Los Angeles, the California Supreme Court held that Civil Code Section 1431.2 (a), does not authorize a reduction in the liability of intentional tortfeasors for noneconomic damages based on the extent to which the other actors contributed to the injuries in question. [i] Justice Chin authored the opinion of the Court with a focus on the statutory interpretation while Justice Liu filed a concurring opinion, focusing on the inefficiency of the Legislature’s attempt to

In Santa Fe Braun v. Ins. Co. of North America (No. A151428, filed 7/13/20), a California appeals court relied on Montrose Chemical Corp. of California v. Superior Court (2020) 9 Cal.5th 215 (Montrose III), to hold that absent express policy wording to the contrary, horizontal exhaustion of all primary insurance is not required in order to trigger first-layer excess coverage. Beginning in 1992, Braun was sued for asbestos injuries from refineries it constructed and maintained. B