Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

In today’s unpredictable world, the need for event cancellation insurance has never been more evident. Whether it’s a high-profile concert by a global superstar like Taylor Swift, an international sporting event like the Olympics, or the start of a much-anticipated football season, the potential for disruption looms large. Terrorism threats and extreme weather events due to the broad impacts of climate change contribute to the growing risks faced by event organizers, artists, and venues. Event cancellation insurance offers a critical safety net in the face of some of these uncertainties.

Benchmark Litigation has named insurance coverage partners Andrea DeField and Geoffrey Fehling to the publication’s 40 & Under List. Benchmark Litigation is the definitive guide to America’s leading litigation firms and attorneys. The 40 & Under List honors the most notable up-and-coming litigation attorneys in the United States. Those named to the list have proven their eligibility as individuals at the partner level of their respective firms who are 40 years of age or younger.

Part II of this series, Levels of Protection, addressed the levels of protection available under the SAFETY Act and their associated benefits. This post discusses how a company prepares and submits an application under the SAFETY Act to the Office of SAFETY Act Implementation (“OSAI”) and the important role outside counsel can play in that process.

California law has become more favorable toward companies facing liabilities based on alleged events spanning multiple years. Previously, California intermediate appellate decisions favored “horizontal exhaustion,” which means that in cases involving a continuous loss, a first-level excess policy that sat over a primary policy could not be accessed until the applicable limits of any other underlying collectible insurance had been exhausted.

But now the California Supreme Court has ruled that vertical exhaustion applies to determine how a policyholder can access its excess insurance policies. Truck Ins. Exch. v. Kaiser Cement, 16 Cal.5th 67 (2024) (“Kaiser”). This means that the excess policy for a policy period can be accessed as soon as the underlying primary policy for that same period is exhausted. There is no need to wait for other years’ policies to be exhausted.

In a recent article published in PropertyCasualty360, Hunton attorneys Syed S. Ahmad, Scott P. DeVries and Yosef Itkin examined the Kaiser decision in more detail. In short, the court found support for its decision relying on the language of the excess policies, along with the policyholder’s reasonable expectations and the history of “other insurance” provisions.

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has promoted insurance recovery lawyer Jorge Aviles to Counsel.

In a recent client alert, Hunton insurance lawyers Lorelie S. Masters, Geoffrey B. Fehling, and Charlotte E. Leszinske discuss emerging ESG-related risks and insurers’ interests in those risks when underwriting insurance policies.  Increased focus on ESG by regulators and the public have brought ESG programs and ESG-related liabilities, such as “greenwashing,” to the forefront.  Insurers are also paying attention to these risks and have signaled that their clients’ efforts to address ESG may factor into underwriting of their insurance policies.  Many emerging ESG risks may be covered under existing corporate insurance programs, including directors and officers insurance.  Before incurring a claim, companies should proactively evaluate their insurance program and assess ESG-related risks, expecting that they may need to explain such assessments to their insurers.  Read the full alert here.  

In an insurance coverage lawsuit brought by 3M Co. and certain of 3M’s wholly owned subsidiaries, including Aearo LLC, the Delaware Superior Court recently ruled that 3M’s payment of litigation costs on Aearo’s behalf do not count toward Aearo’s $250,000 Self-Insured Retention (SIR) contained in several of its legacy policies. This ruling is significant because 3M and Aearo seek, among other things, more than $370 million in defense fees for nearly 300,000 product liability lawsuits consolidated in a multidistrict litigation in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida and state court in Minnesota. Parent companies, and those looking to acquire, should be aware of legacy policy provisions like those expressly prohibiting satisfaction of an SIR by anyone except the named insured.

Jae Lynn Huckaba, an associate in Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s Insurance Coverage practice, will serve as Chair of the Miami-Dade Bar Association Young Lawyer Section’s Community Service Committee for the upcoming 2024-2025 bar year. The YLS recently announced the relaunch of the Community Service Committee, a committee dedicated to giving back to the citizens of Miami through community outreach and service projects.

Recent high-profile cases involving Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) have spotlighted the need for robust directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance tailored to cybersecurity executives. The SEC charges against the former SolarWinds CISO—which were not dismissed in the highly-anticipated decision truncating the SEC’s case against the company—and the 2022 criminal conviction of Uber’s former CISO underscore the growing personal liability risks faced by security leaders.

The highest court in Massachusetts recently held that term “Flood” and the associated phrase “surface waters,” as used in two all-risk insurance policies, is ambiguous in the context of water that accumulated on a parapet roof and rooftop courtyard, thereby negating the insurers’ attempt to limit coverage to a sublimited coverage for “Flood.”