Category «Contra Proferentem»

Eleventh Circuit Enforces Broad Statutory Exclusion To Deny Junk Fax Coverage

It may have seemed like déjà vu for the Eleventh Circuit to get another coverage dispute over junk faxes.  But that is just what happened in Interline Brands, Inc. v. Chartis Specialty Insurance Co., No. 13-10025 (11th Cir. Apr. 15, 2014).  The Eleventh Circuit had previously certified to the Florida Supreme Court a question regarding …

Florida Supreme Court Allows Third-Party Payments To Satisfy Self-Insured Retention

The Florida Supreme Court, on questions certified by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, determined that a policyholder need not pay out of pocket to exhaust its policy’s self-insured retention (“SIR”), but could instead rely on payments made by another insurance company.  The decision, Intervest Constr. of Jax, Inc. v. General Fid. Ins. Co., No. …

Another One Bites the Dust: Florida Appellate Court Reaffirms Favorable Occurrence Test

Number of occurrences is a critical issue in many insurance coverage disputes.  In the World Trade Center coverage cases, it was a billion dollar issue.  The dispute arises in everything from product liability coverage cases, to environmental coverage cases, to automobile and dog bite cases. Number of occurrences cuts both ways in coverage litigation.  In …

Florida Supreme Court to 11th Circuit on Policy Ambiguities: “We Meant What We Said and Said What We Meant”

Last March I wrote about the 11th Circuit’s decision in Ruderman v. Washington National Insurance Corp., No. 10-14714 (11th Cir. Feb. 17, 2012) (appeal of docket No. 1:08-cv-234011-JIC), in which the court certified to the Florida Supreme Court the question of whether an ambiguous insurance policy provision is automatically construed against an insurer or whether the insurer can …

Insurance Policy Interpretation CLE: January 31, 2013, 1:00pm-2:30pm EST

Please join me for a CLE webinar sponsored by Strafford Publications on insurance policy interpretation and construction. I will be presenting along with Verne Pedro at Goldberg Segalla in Princeton, NJ and Jeremy Evans at Foley Hoag in Boston, MA. The program runs from 1:00pm-2:30pm EST. We will discuss various doctrines of insurance policy construction, including contra …

11th Circuit Unsure If Insurance Policy Ambiguities Are Automatically Construed Against Insurers In Florida

Let’s take a short break from the top 10 insurance myths series to discuss a recent Eleventh Circuit decision that might seem a bit puzzling at first.  (Hat tip to my friend Dan Thomas, construction lawyer extraordinaire at Leopold Law, for sending me a copy of the opinion.)  In Ruderman v. Washington National Insurance Corp., …