Justia Insurance Law Opinion Summaries

These consolidated appeals arose from a title insurance coverage dispute between the insured, Doubletree, and its insurance company, Lawyers Title. The court held that the magistrate judge correctly reformed the policy; the reformed policy covered survey errors in identifying the location of the flowage easement; the court rejected the magistrate judge's interpretation of the reformed policy and remanded; the court affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of Lawyers Title as to Doubletree's extracontractual claims; and the magistrate judge abused his discretion in awarding fees to Lawyers' Title under 28 U.S.C. 1927 and the court reversed the award. View "Lawyers Title Ins. Corp. v. Doubletree Partners, L.P." on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against Safeco seeking to stack the underinsured motorist coverage from various policies she and her husband had taken out with Safeco for their five vehicles. On appeal, plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment for Safeco. The court rejected Safeco's argument that the Missouri Supreme Court in Ritchie v. Allied Property & Casualty Insurance Co. limited its holding to situations where the insured was occupying a non-owned vehicle at the time the injury was suffered and was not applicable to plaintiff because she was a pedestrian at the time of the accident. The court concluded that whether the policy in Ritchie required occupancy of a non-owned vehicle was not specifically decided by the Missouri Supreme Court. From the Missouri Supreme Court's holding in Ritchie, the court believed it would reject the Missouri Court of Appeals decision in Kennedy v. Safeco Insurance Co. of Illinois. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded with instructions to grant plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment and to conduct further proceedings. View "Jordan, et al. v. Safeco Ins. Co. of IL" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed the district court's adverse grant of summary judgment respecting the timeliness of his lawsuit against Nationwide seeking coverage under plaintiff's employer's underinsured motorist (UIM) policy with Nationwide. In Minnesota, the plain language of an unambiguous insurance policy controls its legal effect, whereas an ambiguous policy term is construed strictly against the insurer. In this instance, the policy plainly required plaintiff to have filed his action in a court of competent jurisdiction within two years of the underlying accident, a condition which was not satisfied here. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Larson v. Nationwide Agribusiness Ins." on Justia Law

White Oak Manor, Inc. owns and operates a nursing home in York. After sustaining injuries from the improper replacement of a feeding tube, a White Oak resident filed a lawsuit against the nursing home. White Oak ultimately settled the lawsuit without the involvement of its insurer, Lexington Insurance Company. White Oak subsequently filed a declaratory judgment action against Lexington to determine coverage for the malpractice claim. The issue this case presented to the Supreme Court concerned the validity of a service-of-suit clause in an insurance policy in light of Section 15-9-270 of the South Carolina Code (2005) which provides for service of process on an insurer through the Director of the Department of Insurance. The circuit court upheld the service-of-suit clause and refused to relieve the insurer from default judgment. The court of appeals reversed, holding section 15-9-270 provided the exclusive method for serving an insurance company. In its review, the Supreme Court disagreed that section 15-9-270 provided the exclusive means of service on an insurer and held that insurance policy provisions creating alternative methods of service are valid and binding on insurers. Accordingly, the court of appeals' decision was reversed. View "White Oak Manor v. Lexington Insurance Company" on Justia Law

Appellants are five farmers who planted corn on newly broken, non-irrigated acreage in Baca County, Colorado, in the spring of 2008. Appellee Federal Crop Insurance Corporation denied federal crop insurance coverage for corn that Appellants planted, determining that coverage should have been denied because Appellants failed to follow good farming practices by planting on this newly broken land without first allowing a fallow period. After they each received an unfavorable good farming practices determination, Appellants filed suit, arguing the agency acted arbitrarily or capriciously in denying federal crop insurance coverage. Finding that the agency did not act arbitrarily or capriciously, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court and agency's decision. View "Jagers v. Federal Crop Insurance Corp" on Justia Law

Plaintiff formed a contract with Imperial Premium Finance with regard to a financing arrangement for life insurance. Imperial later assigned its interest in the arrangement to Defendant, a limited partnership with its principal place of business in California. Plaintiff filed a petition for declaratory judgment in Iowa, claiming that the contract was not valid. The district court granted Defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, concluding that that contacts of Imperial, the assignor, did not impute to Defendant, the assignee. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) an assignor’s contacts with Iowa are not automatically imputed to the assignee for purposes of obtaining personal jurisdiction over the assignee, but this assignee is subject to personal jurisdiction in Iowa based on its own contacts with this forum through the contractual relationships it assumed by the assignment; and (2) Defendant in this case did have the required minimum contacts to subject Defendant to personal jurisdiction in Iowa. Remanded. View "Ostrem v. PrideCo Secure Loan Fund, LP" on Justia Law

Plaintiff was a passenger who was injured while riding in the vehicle of his brother, who had coverage, including underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage, with Defendant. The policy contained a provision limiting the time to file an action to recover UIM benefits. Plaintiff brought this action to recover UIM benefits approximately one month after the deadline set forth in the policy. Defendant moved for summary judgment, claiming Plaintiff’s petition was untimely because he failed to file it within the policy’s two-year deadline. The district court denied the motion. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) Plaintiff, as an insured and a third-party beneficiary of the policy, did not have greater rights than the policyholder, and therefore, Plaintiff could not avoid the contractual time limitation unless the policyholder under similar circumstances would have been able to avoid it; and (2) the record did not demonstrate either that the policy’s time limit was unreasonable or that Defendant should be equitably estopped from enforcing it. Remanded for entry of summary judgment in favor of Defendant. View "Osmic v. Nationwide Agribusiness Ins. Co." on Justia Law

Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company filed suit against Roger D. Allen, Homeland Vinyl Products, Inc., and Deric Miner, individually and as the personal representative of the estate of Jane Miner, seeking a declaratory judgment that it owed no duty of defense or indemnity to Allen for claims arising out of a fatal automobile accident that occurred in New Jersey. Allen was a New Jersey resident, and moved to dismiss the claims against him for lack of personal jurisdiction. In response, the trial court dismissed the case in its entirety. The insurance company appealed that decision. But finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company v. Allen " on Justia Law

Respondents The Local Government Center, Inc. (LGC), Local Government Center Real Estate, Inc., Local Government Center Health Trust, LLC, Local Government Center Property-Liability Trust, LLC, Health Trust, Inc., New Hampshire Municipal Association Property-Liability Trust, Inc., LGC-HT, LLC, and Local Government Center Workers' Compensation Trust, LLC, appealed a final order of a presiding officer of petitioner the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation (Bureau), finding that they violated RSA 5-B:5, I(c) (2013) and required, among other things, HealthTrust to return $33.2 million to its members, P-L Trust to return $3.1 million to its members, and P-L Trust to transfer $17.1 million to HealthTrust. After its review of the matter, the Supreme Court agreed with one of respondents' arguments with respect to the purchase of reinsurance: the presiding officer erred by requiring HealthTrust to purchase it. The Court affirmed the presiding officer in all other respects, and remanded the case for further proceedings on the reinsurance issue. View "Appeal of the Local Government Center, Inc." on Justia Law

The issue in this case centered on a workers' compensation lump-sum award to a claimant who passed away while an appeal of her award was pending. At issue before the Supreme Court was a Court of Appeals opinion that refused to reach Respondents-Petitioners' argument that the award abated upon the beneficiary's death; granted the entire lump-sum award to beneficiary's dependent grandsons; reversed the grant of interest on the award; and affirmed the reinstatement of a ten-percent penalty. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' decision with respect to the abatement issue and that court's holding that the ten-percent penalty should have been imposed in this case. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals decision requiring the entire lump-sum award be paid to the Grandsons, and reinstated the Estate's and Grandsons' settlement. The Court also reversed the Court of Appeals decision to remove the assessment of interest. The case was remanded for further proceedings on what sums were due pursuant to the Court's holding here. View "Hudson v. Lancaster Convalescent Center" on Justia Law