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Articles Posted in Insurance

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Maximizing Insurance Recoveries When Loss is Imminent

In Hurricane Florence: Maximizing Insurance Recoveries, Pillsbury’s Joe Jean and Peter Gillon discuss the immediate and proactive steps affected businesses and other organizations should take to maximize their insurance recovery. 1. Obtain and Review Your Insurance Policies. 2. Assess All Possible Coverages. 3. Place All Insurers on Notice. 4. Document…

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Is Your Company Prepared for an Unexpected or Catastrophic Loss?

In Hurricane Florence: Is Your Company Prepared for a Disaster?, Pillsbury’s Joe Jean, Tamara Bruno, and Janine Stanisz discuss how important it is for companies to understand how their insurance policies cover the company’s risk in the event of an unexpected or catastrophic loss. Having the correct insurance policies in place…

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Right to Repair Act Strengthened and Upheld by California Supreme Court

On January 18, 2018, in McMillin Albany LLC v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court published a closely followed decision resolving a lower court split interpreting California’s Right to Repair Act (S.B. 800, Civ. Code § 895 et seq.). The Court determined that the legislature intended to alter the common…

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FEMA and New York City are Redrawing the City’s Flood Maps

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and New York City have announced that they will be working together to update the City’s flood maps. The need for updating FEMA’s flood maps has become more than apparent since at least 2005. Cities like New York, Houston, and Baton Rouge, which have been…

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Tenth Circuit Upholds Owner-Property Exclusion In Connection With Cleanup Efforts

On August 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the cost to remediate environmental contamination at a ski resort was subject to a contractual exclusion in the facility’s commercial general liability insurance policy. The case is Taos Ski…

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U.S. Dodges OPA Claim But Must Defend Against Insurer’s Negligence Claims

On September 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit released a significant Oil Pollution Act (OPA) ruling. The case is Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company v. U.S., et al. The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s decision that neither the U.S. nor American Overseas Marine Company, LLC…

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Keeping Your Place in Line: Title Insurance Protections for Construction Loan Disbursements

Most construction loans contemplate multiple advances or disbursements of funds at various stages of the construction project. The construction loan agreement will set forth the conditions that the borrower must satisfy to receive each advance of funds. Given that a construction loan concerns an active construction project, there is a risk…

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8th Circuit: A Spill or Release of Natural Gas Condensate Can Be Subject to an Insurance Policy’s Pollution Exclusion

On January 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that, under the terms of a commercial general liability insurance policy, natural gas condensate, a valuable commercial product, once released, is a pollutant that triggers the policy’s “pollutant exclusion.” The case is Hiland Partners GP Holdings, LLC, et al.,…

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Florida, Sebo and the Concurrent Causation Doctrine

The Florida Supreme Court recently issued a widely reported decision, Sebo v. American Home Assurance Co., which applied the concurrent cause doctrine in ruling that an all-risk homeowner’s insurance policy provides coverage when damage is the result of multiple events—so long as at least one of them is a covered…

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Is Your Use of Standard Subrogation Waivers Leaving You Exposed

We recently posted an interesting blog on Pillsbury’s Policyholder Pulse titled Subrogation Waivers and the Perils of Litigation: Wavering on a Precipice. In it, we discuss the perils of using standard subrogation waivers in your insurance policies, and cautions against the use of standard waivers (which can have unintended consequences).