1 Minute Read
August 13, 2024
By Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
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.
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6 Minute Read
August 12, 2024
SAFETY Act Part III: Procedures for Obtaining Protection
By Lorelie S. Masters, Kevin W. Jones, Charlotte Leszinske and Eric Hutchins
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.
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3 Minute Read
August 8, 2024
California Rules In Favor Of Vertical Exhaustion
By Geoffrey B. Fehling
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.
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2 Minute Read
August 7, 2024
Hunton Andrews Kurth Promotes Insurance Recovery Lawyer Jorge Aviles to Counsel
By Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has promoted insurance recovery lawyer Jorge Aviles to Counsel.
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1 Minute Read
August 5, 2024
With New Risks Emerging, Insurance for ESG Claims More Important Than Ever
By Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
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 alerthere.
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3 Minute Read
August 1, 2024
Retention Roadblock: Costs Paid By Parent Company May Not Satisfy Self-Insured Retention Requirements
By Kevin V. Small and Olivia G. Bushman
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.
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1 Minute Read
July 31, 2024
Hunton’s Jae Lynn Huckaba to Chair “Relaunch” of the Miami-Dade Bar Association Young Lawyer Section’s Community Service Committee
By Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
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.
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3 Minute Read
July 30, 2024
By Geoffrey B. Fehling
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.
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5 Minute Read
July, 29, 2024
A “Flood” of Uncertainty; Massachusetts SJC Finds Policy Term Ambiguous
By Michael S. Levine and Torrye Zullo
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.”
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3 Minute Read
July 23, 2024
Insuring Your Online Presence: Limitations on Social Media Coverage for Businesses
By Geoffrey B. Fehling and Torrye Zullo
As social media continues to grow, businesses have turned to different platforms to promote their products. This advertising strategy can have unintended consequences, including copyright infringement claims, if businesses fail to take certain steps when sharing photos and videos to promote their product.
For example, many multinational music companies have filed lawsuits against brands for copyright infringement. Given the frequency of these claims, businesses may think that infringement and similar intellectual property claims are covered by their liability insurance policies. But that is not always the case.
The most common source of coverage is “Coverage B” in commercial general liability policies, which protects against claims alleging personal and advertising injury. Those claims can include allegations of libel, slander, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, false arrest, and wrongful eviction. All policies are not created equal, however, and references to advertising or intellectual property rights may not actually lead to coverage for social media missteps involving alleged infringement. As a result, it is important for an insured to understand the coverage afforded under their CGL policies and additional coverage options that may provide broader coverage.
There are several common limitations on coverage that may come into play for claims involving social media.
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