Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

In this coverage dispute, Coca-Cola claims that its insurers wrongfully refused to reimburse nearly $1 million in business interruption losses it suffered at two bottling plants in Nepal resulting from a blockade of the Nepal-India border.

On August 29, 2017, my colleagues Lawrence J. Bracken, Michael Levine, and Geoffrey Fehling published an article in Law360 discussing the Ninth Circuit's recent decision rejecting coverage for the Los Angeles Lakers' director's and officer's (D&O) insurance claim arising from a fan's class action lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), based on a broadly-worded invasion of privacy exclusion in the Lakers' D&O insurance policy. A split Ninth Circuit panel held that "[b]ecause a TCPA claim is inherently an invasion of privacy claim, [the insurer] correctly concluded that [the claimant]'s TCPA claims fell under the Policy's broad exclusionary clause." The full article is available here.

From disaster preparedness and workplace safety to autonomous deliveries and performance arts, companies worldwide increasingly rely on drones as a natural extension of their business. Recent Federal Aviation Administration forecasts predict that nearly 4 million drones—over 420,000 of which will be used for commercial operations—will be operating in the U.S. by the year 2021.

On August 22, 2017, a Texas state appellate court panel dismissed a Mexican candy and peanut manufacturer's coverage action against its Mexican insurer and insurance broker due to lack of personal jurisdiction. See Seguros Afirme, S.A. de C.V. v. Elamex, S.A. de C.V., et al., No. 05-16-01465-CV (Tex. Ct. App. filed Aug. 22, 2017); Cooper Gay Martinez Del Rio y Asociados Intermediarios de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V. v. Elamex, S.A. de C.V., et al., No. 05-16-01436-CV (Tex. Ct. App. filed Aug. 22, 2017).

As Texas and other Gulf coast areas make final storm preparations, now is a good time to gather insurance information and policies.  Hunton & Williams attorneys, Michael Levine and John Eichman provide important information in the linked article published by The Texas Lawbook concerning insurance issues that are likely to arise in the storm’s wake, including potentially applicable coverages that could go overlooked without proper guidance.

For more information, please visit our Hurricane Insurance Recovery and Advisory center.

Earlier this month, the Washington Supreme Court reaffirmed coverage for injuries for carbon monoxide, holding that an insurer acted in bad faith when it improperly relied on an absolute pollution exclusion to deny coverage for a lawsuit involving alleged release of carbon monoxide gas inside a home.

As Texas and other Gulf coast areas make final storm preparations, now is a good time to gather insurance information and policies. Hunton & Williams insurance attorneys, Michael Levine and Andrea DeField provide important information in this linked Client Alert concerning insurance issues that are likely to arise in the storm’s wake, including potentially applicable coverages that could go overlooked without proper guidance.

For more information, please visit our Hurricane Insurance Recovery and Advisory center.

A federal judge has ordered an insurer to show cause why he should refrain from dismissing the insurer's case against an NCAA football conference over the availability of insurance for concussion-related lawsuits. Back in May, Great American Assurance Company filed a complaint against Conference USA, seeking a declaration that it need not defend or indemnify the conference against a lawsuit brought by a former football player. In the underlying lawsuit, the former player alleged that he suffered neurodegenerative disorders and diseases, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy ("CTE"), Alzheimer's disease, memory loss, mood swings, headaches, and anxiety stemming from repeated concussive brain impacts he sustained while playing for the University of Louisville. In the coverage action, Great American argues that a Limited Event Coverage endorsement added to Conference USA's policies did not include football as a covered event and therefore the policies do not provide coverage for "bodily injury" arising from football.

Liability insurance policies generally have an exclusion barring coverage for claims brought by the insured’s own employees. Many times, especially in the hospitality industry, a liability insurance policy provides coverage for various different companies. A common question is whether claims brought by an employee of one insured against another insured are covered under such a policy.

Technological advances like 3D printing and “sharing platforms” have increased business risk and, simultaneously, opportunities for risk-shifting between stakeholders. For example, 3D printing has exposed manufacturers to new risks associated with professional, product, IP and workplace liabilities, and the sharing economy (e.g., ride-sharing, home-sharing, car-sharing, etc.) has complicated traditional risk-sharing structures and insurance portfolios.  Attorneys Michael Levine and Andrea DeField discuss the primary issues policyholders need to consider ...

Following a game-ending ankle sprain in Monday night’s loss to the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. ("OBJ") announced that he is considering the purchase of a $100 million insurance policy to protect against future injury. The protection does not come cheap – with premium around $600,000, according to a recent news account.  Nevertheless, OBJ apparently is considering the insurance in the event he cannot come to terms with the Giants on a new long-term contract.

This past Monday, August 14, a federal magistrate judge explained to an insurer that “you can’t always get what you want” when he denied the carrier’s motion to dismiss claims arising from a July 4, 2015 Rolling Stones concert, concluding that the facts in the complaint allege a properly pled claim.

Benchmark Litigation has released its Under 40 Hotlist for 2017, naming the year’s most promising emerging talent in their respective litigation communities in the US and Canadian litigation community by peers and clients.  Among those named is our own Syed Ahmad, along with other Hunton partners Ryan Glasgow (Labor & Employment), Jason Harbour (Bankruptcy), Kerry McGrath (Administrative Law) and Amanda Wait (Competition).

Congratulations, Syed!

A Colorado district court held last week that a general liability insurer must defend a product disparagement claim despite a broadly-worded intellectual property exclusion in the policy. The court reached its ruling even though the alleged disparagement involved representations about patent infringement. In so holding, the court rejected the insurer’s attempt to deny coverage where the “crux of the dispute” fell within the policy’s personal injury coverage part and the insurer had failed to show that the underlying allegations “unequivocally” fell within the ambiguously worded exclusion.

Since our first report last year, Lemonade Insurance, a tech start-up that planned to offer peer-to-peer insurance products, has launched in four states, offering homeowners and renters insurance in New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. Lemonade’s cutting-edge use of technology and its alternative business model could prove disruptive to the insurance industry.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (“DSG”) sued a Chinese insurer, PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited Suzhou Branch (“PICC”), seeking coverage under a products liability insurance policy for personal injury claims arising out of a burst exercise ball. In Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. v. PICC Prop. & Cas. Co. Ltd. Suzhou Branch, No. 2:16-cv-01635-DSC-RCM (W.D. Pa. July 28, 2017), a federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania found that an insurance policy’s forum-selection clause required DSG to assert its claims in a Chinese court and, accordingly, recommended that DSG’s coverage claims be dismissed.

Hollywood is not off to a great start for the month of August. Kanye West's touring company, Very Good Touring, Inc. ("Very Good"), sued insurance company Lloyd's of London ("Lloyd's") on Tuesday in California federal court for withholding almost $10 million in coverage for the shows on West's "Life of Pablo" Tour that were canceled due to West's health condition. In Very Good Touring, Inc. v. Cathedral Syndicate, et al., No. 2:17-cv-05693 (C.D. Cal. filed Aug. 1, 2017), the touring company characterized Lloyd's delay in providing a coverage opinion as "emblematic of a broader modus operandi of the insurers of never-ending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay."

Highlighting the continued problems faced by policyholders in obtaining coverage for "computer fraud," a Michigan district court recently held that a manufacturer could not recover $800,000 in funds lost after an employee mistakenly wired payment for legitimate vendor invoices into a fraudster's bank account after receiving a spoofed e-mail requesting payment. In American Tooling Center, Inc. v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, No. 16-12108 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 1, 2017), the district court applied state law favoring a narrow interpretation of the crime policy's computer fraud provision to hold that the policyholder had not suffered a "direct" loss that was "directly caused" by the use of any computer.

The frequency and magnitude of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1, et seq.) investigations and claims continue to grow. Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Halliburton Co. had agreed to pay $29.2 million in fines and penalties to settle allegations that its operations in Angola and Iraq violated the FCPA's books and records and internal accounting controls provisions. In its press release, Halliburton vowed that it had "continuously enhanced its global ethics and compliance program" since first receiving an anonymous tip in December 2010, but the recent settlement serves as a reminder that even the most robust compliance program cannot guarantee that FCPA violations will not occur.

Last month's post summarized key findings from the recent emerging risk report issued by Lloyd's of London and risk-modeling firm Cyence, highlighting several key findings about cyber risks and the cyber insurance market more generally. In this post, we provide a closer look at some of the more significant cyber coverage issues discussed in the report, a full copy of which can be found here.

In a recently filed brief in the Ninth Circuit, Cottage Health argued in support of the federal district court’s stay of Columbia Casualty’s lawsuit against Cottage Health in favor of Cottage Health’s parallel state court lawsuit against Columbia Casualty.

Earlier this week, HBO announced that it had suffered a "cyber-incident" involving the compromise of "proprietary information" that reportedly includes forthcoming episodes and scripts from popular HBO shows such as Game of Thrones. The HBO breach is the most recent in a growing list of cybersecurity issues faced by Hollywood studios this year. In an e-mail to HBO employees, CEO Richard Plepler called the cyber attack "disruptive, unsettling and disturbing."