HNRK Coverage Corner

On October 28, 2019, Justice Borrok of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Travelers Prop. Cas. Co. of Am. v. ICCO Cheese Co., Inc., 2019 NY Slip Op 33224(U), holding that a CGL carrier had no duty to defend consumer fraud class actions against Walmart because the complaints did not allege claims for “bodily injury” or “property damage.”

Walmart was sued in class actions across the country (consolidated in an MDL proceeding) for allegedly mislabeling parmesan cheese sold under its Great Value brand as “100% grated Parmesan cheese when, in reality, it ...

On September 23, 2019, Justice Rodriguez of the New York County Supreme Court issued a decision in Wesco Ins. Co. v. Hellas Glass Works Corp., 2019 NY Slip Op 32848(U), holding that two liability insurers were required to share in paying defense costs where facts to be determined in the underlying personal injury lawsuit could trigger indemnity coverage under one of the policies.

The coverage issue in Hellas Glass turned on a fact to be resolved in the underlying personal injury litigation – namely, whether the injury occurred in the course of “loading” or “unloading” glass ...

On August 27, 2019, Judge Pauley of the SDNY issued a decision in Gemini Ins. Co. v. Titan Construction Servs., Case No. 17-cv-8963, dismissing a declaratory judgment claim as premature because the lability insurer’s duty to indemnify would depend on facts to be developed in the underlying lawsuit against the insured.  The court explained:

It has long been well-established that a liability insurer may bring an action for a declaratory judgment against the parties in an underlying lawsuit involving its insured without waiting for the underlying action to proceed to judgment ...

On September 10, 2019, Judge Reiss of the WDNY issued a decision in Korn v. Federal Ins. Co., Case No. 1:17-cv-00188, ruling that an insurance carrier providing a defense to the insured in a criminal prosecution had no obligation to “monitor” the fees incurred by defense counsel to ensure that the coverage was not exhausted prior to trial.

Korn, an insured brought breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract claims against a liability insurer, alleging that the insurance company failed “to monitor his criminal defense attorneys, audit the legal fees they incurred, and ...

On August 26, 2019, Judge Caproni of the SDNY issued a decision in Spandex House, Inc. v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., Case No. 18-CV-8367 (VEC), enforcing an IP exclusion in a CGL policy that circumvented the “entire action” rule by precluding both defense and indemnity coverage for an otherwise-covered “advertising injury” claim if that claim was joined with any IP claim unconnected to advertising. As Judge Caproni explains, under a duty to defend policy, “if a lawsuit contains a mix of allegations covered by an insurance policy and other allegations falling outside the ...