HNRK Coverage Corner

On March 9, 2018, the Second Department issued a decision in Graphic Arts Mut. Ins. Co. v. Pine Bush Central School Dist., Index No. 6304/2015, holding that a school district's entitlement to indemnity coverage under a CGL policy for the cost of settling a religious discrimination case depended on questions of fact. Graphic Arts arose from a lawsuit filed by a group of students from the Pine Bush School District, alleging that the students were subjected to anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination by other students, which was reported to, but ignored by school officials.  According ...

Determining which state’s law applies is an important issue in any insurance coverage dispute.  Indeed, the outcome may depend on it, as different states have different rules on the interpretation and enforcement of policy provisions, what the claims the insured can bring, and a host of other issues.  Frequently, however, insurance policies do not have choice-of-law provisions.  Thus, the applicable law must be determined under a conflicts of law analysis.  A recent decision from Judge Glenn T. Suddaby of the NDNY, Ben Weitsman & Son of Scranton, LLC v. Hartford Fire Insurance Co.

On February 26, 2018, United States Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder of the WDNY issued a decision in American Precision Indus., Inc. v. Federal Ins. Co., Case No. 14-CV-1050-RJA-HKS, holding that an insured could obtain discovery of standard forms used by the insurer as “secondary evidence” of a lost insurance policy’s terms.

An insurance policy is a contract, and the determination whether the insured is entitled to coverage depends on the policy’s terms.  But what if the policy itself goes missing?  This is not as far-fetched as it may sound, particularly with regard to ...

A recent decision by Nassau County District Court Judge Scott Fairgrieve M.V.B. Collision Inc. v. State Farm Ins. Co., 2018 NY Slip Op 28043(Dist. Ct. Nassau Co. Feb. 20, 2018), provides a helpful survey of the case law on the enforceability of a policy provision prohibiting assignment or transfer of the insured’s rights under the policy.  As Judge Fairgrieve explains, the rule in New York is that such anti-assignment provisions are enforceable only as to assignments made before the insured sufferers a covered loss.  Thus, once the insured has a coverage claim, the right to ...

On February 21, 2018, the Second Circuit issued a decision in Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Central Terminal Restoration Corp., Case No. 17‐1636‐cv, holding that a car accident caused by a driver to whom the insured had served alcohol when he was visibly intoxicated, in violation of New York’s dram shop law, was a covered occurrence under a commercial general liability policy. A typical CGL Policy, such as the policy at issue in Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co., provides coverage for “bodily injury” resulting from an “occurrence” (defined as “an accident” ...