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 ...

On February 13, 2024, the New York Appellate Division, First Department, issued a decision in Bay Plaza Mall, LLC v. Argonaut Ins. Co., holding that evidence regarding an insurer’s handling of “prior similar claims” was a relevant consideration in construing a CGL policy.

This coverage action arose from “two underlying personal injury actions brought by individuals who were injured while working on a project at premises owned by plaintiffs.” Affirming the motion court’s decision denying the insurers’ motion for summary judgment, the First Department noted that ...