Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

The owner of a fire-damaged warehouse in Florida is battling in the Fifth Circuit to revive a claim alleging that a broker and insurer negligently failed to procure adequate insurance for the warehouse—by arguing that the lower court should have applied a different state’s law to its summary judgment determination. The warehouse owner leased the warehouse to a Florida-based produce distributor, which in turn procured a $5 million insurance policy from Alterra American Insurance Co. A fire later caused $10 million worth of damage to the warehouse, toward which Alterra paid the $5 million policy limit.

A US District Court has ruled that a Professional Services Exclusion in a D&O policy does not bar coverage for suits alleging that a network of for-profit career colleges engaged in false marketing regarding the quality of education and job prospects that enrollees would receive. The decision in Education Affiliates Inc., et al. v. Federal Insurance Company, et al., stems from a series of lawsuits filed against the owner of the career colleges by former students and a subpoena and draft complaint served by the Florida Attorney General alleging that the colleges were deceptive in marketing their services to prospective students.

A federal judge in Colorado recently ruled that a commercial property and general liability policy issued to a medical marijuana dispensary and its cultivation facility can provide coverage for harvested marijuana that is damaged or destroyed.  In the case of The Green Earth Wellness Center, LLC v. Atain Specialty Insurance Company, smoke and ash from a wildfire entered the facility’s ventilation system and damaged Green Earth’s potted pot plants to the tune of $200,000, with an additional $40,000 in damage to plants that had already been harvested and were being prepared for ...