The Complex Insurance Coverage Reporter

Commercial general liability (CGL) policies typically provide that an insurer will defend a “suit” that seeks covered “damages” that the insured may be “legally obligated to pay.” This seems simple enough.

But can an insurer have any obligation to its insured even before a “suit” is filed? Because of judicial interpretation of the policy language, the answer may be less straightforward than it would seem.

Conflicting Case Results

Consider two cases, decided less than a decade apart by federal courts in Massachusetts, which applied the same policy language to ... Continue Reading

ARBITRATION

Rossello v. Zurich American Insurance Company, 2020 Md. LEXIS 174 (Md. Apr. 3, 2020)

Maryland’s highest court adopts pro rata allocation for asbestos-related bodily injury claims under liability policies. The court began by explaining that injury spanning many years often implicates multiple policies and therefore implicates a continuous or injury-in-fact trigger under Maryland law. Adopting the reasoning of Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Utica Mutual Insurance Company, 802 A.2d 1070 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2002), app. dismissed, 821 A.2d 369 (Md ... Continue Reading