Most commercial general liability policies issued to bars and restaurants specifically exclude coverage for bodily injury arising out of an assault and battery. In order to avoid this limitation, Plaintiffs often try to trigger coverage by alleging that the insured’s negligence was the cause of the injury—not the actual assault and battery. This strategy may work in some jurisdictions, but it won’t work in New York. Following precedent set by the New York Court of Appeals in 1995, the Supreme Court of New York County held in Hermitage Insurance Company v. Beer-Bros, Inc. that the insurer had no duty to
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Monthly Archives May 2015
Pennsylvania Federal Court Finds That Illegal Passing Does Not Trigger the Criminal Act Exclusion of an Accidental Death Policy
In Locklear v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania held that an insurer could not use alleged vehicle code violations to trigger the “criminal act” exclusion of an accidental death policy. The insurer denied benefits to the widow of a man who was killed in a car accident when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a truck while he was attempting to pass a construction vehicle in a no-passing zone. Plaintiff brought suit under ERISA after the insurer denied her claim and she exhausted all her administrative appeals.
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Federal Court In Kentucky Refuses to Allow Insurer to Assert Reverse Bad Faith Claim
This week the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to allow State Auto Property & Casualty Co. to assert a reverse bad faith claim against a policyholder who admitted to submitting a fraudulent insurance claim after conspiring to burn her own house down. The federal appellate court concluded that Kentucky law does not recognize an action by an insurer against an insured for reverse bad faith. Fortunetly for insurers, many other states and jurisdiction (such as Pennsylvania for example) do recognize a reverse bad faith cause of action action, which allow insurers to recover their costs and expenses,
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The Inadmissibility of Expert Net Opinions Addressed by Another New Jersey Court
Relying on the rationale set forth in the recently decided case of Townsend v. Pierre (see post of March 13, 2015), the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of a personal injury action in Deniese v. Site Service Group Inc. (unpublished), on the basis that plaintiff’s expert rendered an inadmissible net opinion regarding the defendant’s alleged negligence. Mr. Deniese was injured when he slipped and fell into a row of shrubs while brushing snow from his car, which was parked in front of a bank. He sued the bank’s snow removal and landscaping
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New York Court Finds No Duty to Defend or Indemnify Under Additional Insurance Endorsement Where Injury Did Not Arise From Leased Premises
Slip and falls on sidewalks in front of leased premises often raise questions of who’s responsible, landlord or tenant, and whose carrier should respond in damages. In Leading Ins. Group Ins. Co., Ltd. v. Argonaut Great Cent. Ins. Co., 2015 NY Slip Op 50574 (April 22, 2015), the Supreme Court of New York for Westchester County said the answer lies in the lease and whether the sidewalk is part of the leased premises. In Leading, Hartsdale, the owner of a building leased to tenants for use as a dry cleaner, was sued by a woman, Kellner, who slipped and fell
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