HNRK Coverage Corner

On May 15, 2024, the Eighth Circuit issued a decision in Dexon Computer, Inc. v. Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Case No. 23–1328, interpreting what the district court aptly described as a “nebulous concept”—the “related acts” provision in a claims made liability policy.

As we have explained in a previous post on this topic, claims made policies generally cover claims made against the insured during the policy period, even though the underlying conduct may have occurred during an earlier period.  But sometimes, a lawsuit filed during the policy period ...

As policyholder counsel, we’re predisposed to look at insurers with a jaundiced eye. So, we were pleased to read reports that Chubb—the insurer for Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed on March 26—is preparing to make a prompt $350 million payment to the State of Maryland.

Where coverage and a loss far exceeding the coverage limits are clear, there is no good faith reason to delay payment.  Good to see an insurer doing the right thing.

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 January 8, 2024, Justice Frank of the New York County Supreme Court issued a decision in Endurance Am. Ins. Co. v. StoneX Commodity Solutions, LLC, Index No. 653234/2022, granting summary judgment as to liability to StoneX Commodity Solutions, a trader of physical commodities, in an insurance coverage dispute, arising from a loss of more than 500,000 bushels of soybeans as a result of a warehouse owner’s fraud.

The court held that StoneX established an actual loss during the relevant policy period, declaring there is insurance coverage to cover the loss of 502,315 bushels of ...

On December 26, 2023, the Second Circuit issued a decision in Ezrasons, Inc. v. The Travelers Indemnity Co., Docket No. 22-766, construing an ambiguous provision in a marine cargo insurance policy in favor of the insured under the doctrine of contra proferentem.

As the Second Circuit explained: “When dealing with insurance policies, it is a ‘fundamental’ principle of New York law that ambiguities should be interpreted against the insurer and in favor of the insured.” This rule of construction (which we have discussed in previous posts) is an application of the contra ...