Case Briefs
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
Features
Occurrence Limits Under Multi-Year Policies: NJ Courts Are Changing Their Approach
In complex coverage cases involving 'long-tail' claims (such as asbestos bodily injury claims or property damage claims related to environmental pollution), decades of insurance policies can be put at issue. In many states, the policyholder's losses will be spread across the years in which the injury or property damage occurred on a proportionate basis, typically referred to as 'time on the risk' or pro rata allocation. <i>E.g., Security Ins. Co. of Hartford v. Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co.</i>, 826 A.2d 107, 116 (Conn. 2003); <i>Sharon Steel Corp. v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co.</i>, 931 P.2d 127, 141 (Utah 1997); <i>Insurance Co. of N. Am. v. Forty-Eight Insulations, Inc.</i>, 633 F.2d 1212, 1224-25 (6th Cir. 1980).
Features
Courts Favor Insurers in Airport Cases Seeking Civil Authority Coverage After 9/11
On the morning of 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration reacted to the unfolding national disaster by issuing a 'ground stop order' of all aircraft departures regardless of destination. This ground stop order was lifted on Sept. 14, 2001. Due to the events of 9/11, numerous policyholders sought coverage under first-party property policies for coverage of their business interruption losses related to operations at the country's airports. The policyholders claimed that the ground stop order or other governmental orders closed the airports and gave rise to coverage under their policies' Civil Authority provision. Based on varying policy language, insurers resisted these claims on several grounds, including that 1) the ground stop order did not bar access to the airports, 2) the ground stop order was not issued due to property damage, and 3) the ground stop order was not issued due to damage to the insured's property or to adjacent property.
News Briefs
Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.
Features
Court Watch
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
Access to SBA Contracts
Under current U.S. Small Business Administration ('SBA') regulations, franchisees and licensees are not, by virtue of their contractual franchise and license agreements alone, ineligible to bid on small business set-aside procurement contracts or to apply for SBA loans. Although franchise or license relationships do not make franchisees or licensees automatically ineligible, they are cause for affiliation scrutiny by the SBA or protesting bidders if a franchisee or licensee is the successful bidder on a procurement or is an applicant for an SBA loan.
Anticipated New Federal Rules on Electronic Discovery
The following is a summary of key issues addressed by Paul Reeve and Jonathan Solish in a session about electronic discovery that they led at the 2006 International Franchise Association Legal Symposium in Washington, DC. The summary was prepared by the authors of the presentation.
Features
In the Courts
Important rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Selective Privilege Waiver and Proposed FRE 502
This summer, the standing committee on the federal rules of the Supreme Court's Judicial Conference will propose for public comment Federal Rule of Evidence 502 and Committee Notes, initially drafted and recommended by the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. Proposed Rule 502 addresses the waiver of privilege arising from the production of documents: the effect of inadvertent production, the scope of the waiver arising from both inadvertent and intentional production, and ' the subject of this article ' the effect on future claims of privilege of producing documents to the government in the course of an investigation.
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