Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

The Tenth Circuit recently addressed whether multiple injuries allegedly resulting from an institution’s failure to prevent sexual abuse constitute one “occurrence” or several. In Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, the court held that the relevant policy language found in many general liability policies was ambiguous and must be construed in favor of the policyholder.

The decision shows that determining the number of occurrences depends not merely on the number of claimants, injuries, or time between injuries, but on the policy language and the alleged cause of liability. That distinction may affect whether coverage applies when a policy includes a per-occurrence self-insured retention or deductible.

Policyholders have scored another victory in the Delaware Superior Court, this time on the issue of whether a “mergers and acquisition” endorsement required payment of a higher retention in two securities class actions. In August, we reported that, in CVR Refining, LP v. XL Specialty Insurance Co., No. N21C-01-260 EMD CCLD, 2021 WL 3523925 (Del. Super. Ct. Aug. 11, 2021), a Delaware Superior Court judge upheld a policyholder’s preferred forum in Delaware, denying five insurers’ motion to dismiss or stay the Delaware coverage action filed after the insurers had filed suit preemptively in Texas.

The Supreme Court of California has ruled that a general liability insurer must defend an employer against allegations of employee misconduct, reinforcing the breadth of (1) what constitutes an “occurrence” under an employer’s commercial general liability (CGL) policy and (2) the duty to defend regarding claims for negligent hiring, retention and supervision. The opinion in Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp. v. Ledesma & Meyer Constr. Co., Inc. can be found here.