
P&C Insurers Return To Profits Amid Economic Uncertainty
Property and casualty insurers collected record-setting profits in 2024, but macroeconomic conditions and other factors threaten to stymie their growth, says a broker and author of a recent report. Here, Law360 speaks to Vince Gaffigan about what drove growth, the looming risks ranging from inflation to catastrophic weather events, and what brokers and insureds should do to ready themselves against an array of uncertainties.

PNC's $106M Coverage Loss Cautionary Tale For Acquisitions
A recent Third Circuit ruling rejecting PNC Bank's more than $100 million coverage bid for an underlying judgment against a subsidiary highlights a small but potentially impactful provision precluding coverage for wrongful acts that occur prior to an acquisition.

Amid New Political Reality, NAIC Says No Fed Insurance Office
State insurance regulators made a significant push to limit perceived federal intrusion into their authority last week when their primary deliberative body called for the abolition of a U.S. Treasury office tasked with identifying and reporting on risks to the industry.
Property More
A Georgia law firm hit Allstate Insurance Co. with a proposed class action over allegations that it fails to pay title transfer fees and license registration fees to insureds who incur total loss claims.
An insurer can't escape an auto parts manufacturer's suit seeking $50 million in coverage for COVID-19-related losses, a North Carolina federal court ruled, saying the manufacturer sufficiently alleged that it... (more story)

A Louisiana federal judge again refused to find that the insurer of a suburban New Orleans commercial property acted in bad faith in denying to cover $220,000 in damage Hurricane Ida allegedly caused in 2021.
An insurer who sued the contractor and plumbers who worked on the home of NFL player Darius Slay for more than $300,000 in water damage dropped the suit Thursday, after the companies never responded to it.
An insurer will pay nearly $1 million to resolve claims it failed to protect drivers' data, Michigan's top court will take up two car insurance appeals, the Fifth Circuit was asked to set precedent with an ass... (more story)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautioned her colleagues during oral arguments Wednesday against using a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's administration of a broadband subsidy pr... (more story)
The Illinois Supreme Court won't hear a WestRock Co. subsidiary's petition for review of an appeals decision affirming that one of its insurers had no duty to cover environmental cleanup costs at a now-shutter... (more story)
General Liability More
Mt. Hawley Insurance Co. must help cover a Chubb unit's nearly $9 million payment to settle an underlying worker injury lawsuit stemming from an office renovation project, a New York federal court ruled, findi... (more story)
Customers who allege they suffered $35 million in damage after purchasing substandard heating oil can continue to seek coverage of underlying litigation, with a Massachusetts federal judge saying Tuesday their... (more story)
A Houston-based bar asked the Fifth Circuit to make precedential a recent ruling that found a lower court wrongfully limited an insurer's coverage obligations on an assault judgment rather than dismissing the ... (more story)
A Delaware-based plumbing and HVAC company has withdrawn its federal suit claiming that a general contractor and Liberty Mutual improperly withheld $1.1 million in payments for work the company completed on a ... (more story)
Skechers' insurer wrongfully refused to defend the shoe giant in a putative class action over slip-resistance problems with some of its shoes, Skechers told a California state court in seeking at least $750,000.
The U.S. Supreme Court won't review an Eleventh Circuit decision that a missing comma in a Chubb unit's professional services policy did not alter its clear and unambiguous meaning excluding coverage for a foo... (more story)
Specialty Lines More
A Michigan federal court tossed on Thursday an insurer's lawsuit seeking a declaration that it had no duty to indemnify a shareholder class action stemming from Covisint's 2017 merger with software company Ope... (more story)
A North Carolina business court judge refused to exclude expert witnesses from either side of an insurance coverage dispute between Smithfield Foods Inc. and a Chubb subsidiary, but did limit their testimony f... (more story)

Several unlicensed individuals submitted hundreds of fraudulent charges for services provided to Geico-insured car accident victims, the insurer has alleged in New York federal court, claiming it lost more tha... (more story)
An insurer said it doesn't owe coverage for a $6.3 million default judgment entered against a medical cannabis testing company related to its fraudulent operations, telling a Mississippi federal court that the... (more story)
The Illinois Supreme Court left intact an intermediate appellate panel's decision relieving two Liberty Mutual units of covering a home decor company in its underlying dispute with employees who said its timek... (more story)
Federal accident investigators' recent determination that Maryland could've done more to protect Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge from a devastating collapse may complicate the sprawling legal battle over ... (more story)
Insurers in a coverage cap dispute with an aluminum company have asked the Fourth Circuit to reconsider an opinion holding that an ambiguous policy provision must be construed in the company's favor, calling i... (more story)