HNRK Coverage Corner

In an article for Chambers’ 2025 Insurance and Reinsurance Global Practice Guide, insurance recovery partners Brad Nash and Dorothea Regal discuss some of the high-stakes insurance coverage disputes that came out of New York last year, and the resulting insurance litigation trends the industry should have an eye on, including:

• State and federal decisions providing guidance as to when insureds may assert extracontractual claims (such as a common law claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing or statutory claims for deceptive business practices) based on an insurer’s bad faith claims handling.

• A decision from the New York Court of Appeals rejecting business interruption insurance claims for losses based on the alleged presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the aftermath of that decision, new legislation authorizing insurers to issue standalone business interruption insurance covering losses that are not necessarily caused by a “physical loss” was issued.

• A Second Circuit decision considering whether a claimant’s demand letter constituted a covered “claim” as defined by the insured’s professional liability insurance policy.

• An instructive state appellate decision on choice of law rules for liability insurance policies covering multi-state environmental losses.

• An ongoing split of authority in the New York courts on an insurer’s right to recoup defense costs for non-covered claims.

Read the full article https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/insurance-reinsurance-2025/usa-new-york/trends-and-development.