HNRK Coverage Corner

HNRK secured a significant and precedential win for Syngenta Crop Protection LLC this week, when the Delaware Supreme Court upheld a trial court’s two summary judgment rulings that its primary and umbrella insurers could not avoid their coverage obligations on the basis of an attorney’s presuit letter claiming Syngenta’s herbicide Paraquat caused his unnamed clients’ alleged injuries. The court rejected the insurers’ argument that the letter constituted a “claim for damages” first made prior to the period covered by the policies and, in so doing, clarified the meaning of the terms “claim” and “claim for damages” as used in liability insurance policies.

Syngenta was represented in the win by partners Josh Blosveren (who argued the appeal), Dorothea Regal, and Miriam Manber.

Read coverage of the win in Law360, Business Insurance, and Bloomberg Law.