Tomorrow I am speaking from 10:30 to noon on a panel with Christine Gudaitis at Ver Ploeg & Marino and Rebecca Appelbaum at Adams & Reese. Our topic is Commercial General Liability Insurance. The program is part of The Seminar Group’s 3rd Annual Insurance in the Construction Industry CLE program, being held at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Miami …
I have a couple of other cases I want to write about, but it is not often that the Florida Supreme Court hands down an important insurance law decision, so those other cases will have to wait. Yesterday, in Sebo v. American Home Assurance Co., Case No. SC 14-897 (Fla. Dec. 1, 2016), the Florida Supreme Court …
I previously wrote here about Judge Marra’s decision in the Southern District of Florida in Altman Contractors, Inc. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Ins. Co., No. 13-80831-CIV, 2015 WL 3539755, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72466 (S.D. Fla. June 4, 2015). The question in that case was whether a Florida 558 proceeding constitutes a “suit” that …
Triggering an insurer’s duty to defend is an important first step in any insurance coverage claim. Typically, an insurer’s duty to defend is triggered when the insurer receives notice of a lawsuit filed against its policyholder. But disputes can arise when a policyholder is required to respond to a claim that falls short of litigation, …
I have written several times on what it means to “trigger” an insurance policy for a long-tail claim (see here, here, and here). Long-tail claims stretch over several years of coverage. Examples are environmental claims, latent bodily injury claims, and many types of construction defect claims. Unlike a single-point-trigger claim, like a car accident or …
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 is to post more regularly to this blog. It was a very busy 2014, especially the second half of the year, and I have not been able to provide updates as frequently as I would like. So before we ring in the new year, let’s review some …
I have written about the insurance law concept of “trigger” several times before, most recently in the context of the Middle District of Florida’s decision in Axis Surplus Insurance Co. v. Contravest Construction Co., 921 F. Supp.2d 1338 (M.D. Fla. 2012). An Insurance Law Florida reader from Colorado recently asked for an update on Florida …
The insurance concept of “trigger” is a bit esoteric, so let’s start with a little background. Trigger is one of the most important concepts in insurance law. It is also one of the most misunderstood. It is often mistaken for allocation, but the two concepts are different. Trigger determines which years of coverage apply to …
The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Deni Associates of Florida, Inc. v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance Co., 711 So.2d 1135 (Fla. 1998) continues to haunt Florida policyholders with Total Pollution Exclusions in their general liability policies. This time it was Southern District of Florida Judge Robert Scola’s July 16, 2012 decision in First …
This April 9, 2012 decision (Great American Fidelity Insurance Co. and Great American E&S Insurance Co. v. JWR Construction Services Inc. and Gulf Reflections Condominium Association, No. 10-61423 (S.D. Fla. April 9, 2012)) by Judge Huck of the Southern District of Florida (Fort Lauderdale) is interesting for several reasons. The declaratory judgment action was filed …