This article was published in the ARIAS-U.S. Quarterly on September 1, 2021. Partner Amy Kallal and Special Counsel Andrea Fort discuss recent cases involving the efforts to obtain access to arbitration awards which are filed as part of petitions to...
A domestic corporation is a citizen of its state of incorporation and principal place of business for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.[1] By contrast, the citizenship of other “unincorporated” domestic business entities (such as limited liability...
Does An Insurer Have An Entitlement to Recoup Defense Costs When No Duty to Indemnify Exists? In a case of first impression for the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, the court chose not to follow prior decisions of its...
The Case Of Cadre v. Proassurance Casualty Company Rule 1:21-1B of the New Jersey Rules of Court governs the practice of law as a limited liability company, and provides in relevant part that “[a]ttorneys may engage in the practice of law as limited...
The New York Law Journal published “NY Prompt Pay Act for Construction Contractors,” written by partner Barry Temkin and coauthor Ken Eccleston, on August 10, 2021. This article provides an in-depth discussion of New York’s Prompt Pay Act,...
The Indiana Supreme Court Weighs In With the proliferation of computer crime these days, cyber insurance has become a must for businesses. There are many different types of cyber coverage available on the market, and the coverage that an insured...
Maintaining Confidentiality When Petitioning for Relief in Court A long-running dispute between Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company and one of its reinsurers, Everest Reinsurance Company, recently culminated in the unsealing of an...
This article was published on Law360.com (subscription required) on June 10, 2021, in Insurance Authority, and in the daily Insurance newsletter. On June 9, El Salvador became the first country to adopt a Bitcoin standard. The law passed by El...
Barry Temkin co-authored “ABA Remote Work Guide Raises Bar For Atty Tech Know-How” in Law360 (subscription required) with Jennifer Goldsmith, vice president of professional liability claims at Ironshore, discussing ABA Ethics Opinion 498, a...
State and federal courts across the country are grappling with insurance coverage litigation, as insureds who suffered business losses due to government-mandated shutdowns look to their property insurers for relief. These cases present the following key...
On June 30, 2020 registered securities broker-dealers must begin their compliance with new SEC Regulation Best Interest and Form CRS Relationship Summary/Form ADV Part 3, which were announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 5, 2019.[1]...
In addition to a 2018 ABA ethics opinion which outlines when law firms are ethically obligated to notify clients of data breaches jeopardizing the security of their confidential information, the California Bar Association has handed down additional...
This article was published on Liberty Mutual’s website. This article will consider potential future claims against design professionals that are expected to arise from the Covid-19 pandemic and offer recommendations for how design professionals...
On March 19, 2020, National Public Radio broke the news of a series of suspicious stock trades by U.S. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Health and Welfare Committee. On May 14,...
Much has been written in recent years about lawyers’ duties to preserve the confidentiality of client information under the rules of professional conduct and to take reasonable precautions to strengthen cybersecurity in order to avoid data breaches. ...
Partner Matthew Lasky’s article, “Data Protection: Harmonizing Tensions Between the NAIC’s ‘Insurance Data Security Law’ & Traditional Access-To-Records Provisions” was published in the Journal of Reinsurance 2020,...
Partner Barry Temkin is quoted in an Investment News article about FINRA’s recent enforcement action against Prudential Investment Management Services regarding inaccurate retirement plan disclosures. To view this article please click below.
Partner Barry Temkin’s article, “New ‘Regulation Best Interest’ Becomes Effective for Broker Dealers” was published in New York Law Journal. NYLJ Article
Cyber Attacks: What Are They? Broadly speaking, cyber attacks are socially or politically motivated attacks carried out through the Internet, targeting individuals, corporations, governments, or the general population.[1] They can be categorized into...
Let’s say an instant oatmeal product incorporates a dried milk ingredient that has been manufactured in a facility with unsanitary conditions and that the milk ingredient may be contaminated with Salmonella as a result. The instant oatmeal product then...
Suppose a pipe bursts in a hotel, causing water damage to an entire floor, and requiring the replacement of that floor’s carpeting. As it turns out, however, that style and pattern of carpeting is no longer available anywhere. The hotel insists that...
New technology and artificial intelligence are leading to major changes in the traditional underwriting process. This article discusses how the automatization of underwriting may affect the relationship between reinsured and reinsurer, including the...
If only Clair Huxtable, Esq. were willing to take on Cliff Huxtable’s cases pro bono, maybe William “Bill” Cosby could have avoided the extended legal battle with American International Group, Inc. (“AIG”) over whether it was obligated to defend Mr....
Cybersecurity events, including hacking, are on the rise at law firms. A major professional liability insurer estimates that as many as 80% of the largest law firms in the U.S. have experienced data breaches recently.[1] Nor is external hacking the only...
The New York State Department of Financial Services has promulgated 17 new cybersecurity regulations which apply to regulated entities doing business in New York. The new DFS rules apply to all entities under its jurisdiction, including insurance...
By Brenda K. Dorsett and Barry R. Temkin* Is my Amazon Alexa spying on me? Recent years have witnessed the growth and proliferation of voice-activated virtual assistants like the Amazon Echo, with its digital assistant Alexa, Google Home, and Apple...
Mr. Gura’s and Ms. Fort’s article titled “Automatization of Underwriting and the Future of the Reinsurance Relationship,” will be available to all members of the Intermediaries & Reinsurance Underwriters Association in the...
Energy storage is the missing link for the renewable energy power sources of wind and solar, which are intermittent with nature. When the sun sets, the wind dies down or electricity demand peaks, rather than turning to traditional fossil fuel power...
Technology keeps progressing in leaps and bounds. We read that robots or the much- awaited (or dreaded) artificial intelligence are going to take over property claims work in the All Things Internet New World. Unfortunately, there is a “dark side” that...
A. Introduction From causes of action sounding in breach of contract, to improperly earned commissions, to allegations of violations of real estate specific statutes, buyers and sellers have continued to assert claims against real estate professionals,...
Court decisions concerning flood zones designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) often seem to be like someone is reciting the alphabet. “A,” “AE,” “B,” “C,” “D,” “V,” “X,” to name a few. (What happened to E through U are...
Medidata Solutions, Inc. provides cloud-based services to scientists conducting research in clinical trials and uses Google’s Gmail as a platform for the company’s emails. While the emails are routed through Google’s computer servers, which also process...
The Supreme Court of Ohio recently issued a decision that bucked the dominant trend among U.S. courts when it comes to CGL coverage for construction defects. In Ohio Northern University v. Charles Construction Services, Inc. — N.E.3d —-,...
In Gen. Re Life Corp. v. Lincoln Nat’l Life Ins. Co., No. 17-2496-CV, 2018 WL 6186078, — F.3d. — (2d Cir. Nov. 28, 2018), the Second Circuit, for the first time, recognized “an exception to functus offico where an arbitration award is...
According to Business Insider, thirty states currently allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and nine permit the recreational use of marijuana.[2] Seven years ago, medical marijuana was allowed in seventeen states and the District of...
On June 11, 2018, news broke that the local and federal law enforcement officials had arrested 74 people, including nearly 30 in Nigeria, in a “coordinated crackdown on people who convince correspondents to wire them money for fraudulent activities.”...
The New York State Department of Financial Services has promulgated seventeen new cybersecurity regulations that apply to regulated entities doing business in New York. The new DFS rules apply to all entities under its jurisdiction, including insurance...
Liability insurance policies do not provide coverage for injuries resulting from conduct that is “particularly reprehensible.” As a general rule, coverage is barred where the insured had an intent to injure. In most circumstances, courts apply a...
In a recent case, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that an insured had no duty to defend an insured accused of falsely advertising the origin of its product. Albion Engineering Company, a New Jersey company, was sued...
Introduction “When will it end?” is a refrain that must be on many liability insurers’ minds when it comes to liability under commercial general liability policies issued decades ago. Many such policies contain anti-assignment clauses, the purpose of...
Product Contamination: When The Spices Kick It Up a Notch, Who Will Respond? A notification rings and the insured sees an urgent email from its spice supplier. The email states, in bold capital letters: ”RECALL! Spices Contaminated With Salmonella.” ...
We thought about skipping Part 13 and going straight to Part 14, but that might confuse readers who don’t suffer from triskaidekaphobia.[1] Let’s confront this irrational fear and see where the liquidation of Health Republic Insurance of New York, Inc....
In Part 13, we addressed the Explanations of Benefits (EOBs) that the Liquidator has been issuing since August 2017. We also reviewed the Liquidator’s “partial” audited financial statement for Health Report, a statement that covers the period from May...
Reprinted with permission from the New York Law Journal, Volume 259 – NO. 124 on Thursday, June 28, 2018. To view the article, click here.
Corrosion exclusions have been commonplace in first-party property insurance policies for decades, as evidenced by the sheer number of jurisdictions and decisions addressing them. The exclusion is intended, in part, to prevent a contract of insurance...
This article is reprinted with permission from Law360, New York, June 22, 2017.
This article is reprinted with permission from the New York Law Journal, Volume 257—NO. 39, Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
This article is reprinted with permission from Law360, January 26, 2017.
This article is reprinted with permission from Law360, New York, January 23, 2017, Law360.com.
This article is reprinted with permission from the January 10, 2017 issue of New York Law Journal© 2017 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission from Corporate Disputes Magazine, Jan-Mar 2017 Issue.
This article is reprinted with permission from the December 2016 Plus Journal, * Vol. XXIX * Number 12.
Partner Costantino Suriano has authored an article titled: “Who is the CBI Winner? An Oil-Producing City Evacuated Must Mean a CBI Claim is Coming to Some Insurer: the Fort McMurray.” Published in the Fall issue of the IACP’s...
MCWG partners Suriano and Manzo author White Paper on Fort McMurray Wildfires: “WHO IS THE CBI WINNER? An Oil-Producing City Evacuated Must Mean a CBI Claim is Coming to Some Insurer.” Read full White Paper:
Partner Jonathan Gross and Special Counsel, Victor Jacobellis co-authored an article titled: My Computer Won’t Work First Party Insurance Coverage for Cyber Losses. This article accompanied a presentation Mr. Gross gave at the Defense Research...
Jeffrey Weinstein and Jared Markowitz have co-authored an article titled: REBUTTAL: When Insurance Policies Are Enforced As Written, published in law360.com on January 26, 2016. This article is reprinted with permission.
The state of the law across the U.S. regarding insurance for construction defects under commercial general liability (CGL) coverage is an ever-changing landscape. Although numerous coverage issues continue to be debated, including the fundamental issue...
The opioid crisis has focused attention on workplace substance abuse like never before. In August, President Trump declared the opioid crises “a national emergency,” the likes of which “this country has never seen before.” State and federal political...
Insurance policies commonly contain an exclusion for losses caused by “earth movement” or “subsidence.” Such exclusions typically exclude coverage for losses caused by earthquakes, landslides, mudflows, and earth sinking or shifting. Absent language...
Insurance issues often influence the outcome of securities arbitrations and mediations, yet the workings of errors and omissions insurance is not fully understood by many lawyers, arbitrators and mediators. In fact, insurance information is generally...
Property insurance policies, like other insurance policies, contain an overall limit of liability, which is the maximum amount that the insurance company will pay for any given loss. In addition to an overall limit, policies may also contain...
In an unusual and noteworthy publicly-reported discovery battle between a cedant and reinsurer, the cedant sought to protect almost twenty years of historical reserving information relating to late notice of asbestos claims against its insured, on...
For those readers just joining us, in the MCWG Summer 2016 Newsletter, pp. 22-29, we addressed how Health Republic Insurance of New York (Health Republic), New York’s only not-for-profit health insurer formed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), opened...
Parts 9-11 of Health Republic’s Curious Liquidation concerns a January 2016 Roundtable convened by New York State Senators James L. Seward and Kemp Hannon; a December 2016 letter from Senators Seward and Hannon to Department of Financial Services (DFS)...
Part 12 concerns a May 8, 2017 Court-ordered proceeding that explored the $7.6 million that Health Republic’s Liquidator spent during the first ten months of the liquidation proceeding — all without Court approval.[1] The proceeding revealed that:...
If you could count on anything, it would be that our partner, Dan Markewich, would spend at least a few minutes at each monthly partner meeting talking about the Mound Cotton Newsletter. The Newsletter was something he took pride in, often reminding...
It is an unfortunate fact of life for insurers and insurance coverage defense attorneys that courts often lean the insured’s way in matters of policy interpretation. This axiom also carries through in many jurisdictions when insurers accuse the insured...
Lawyers who maintain active social media presences should be aware of two recent opinions by ethics committees in New York discussing the extent to which lawyers’ postings on the social media page LinkedIn constitute attorney advertising in New York. ...
As more businesses come to realize that cyber attacks pose a serious threat to business operations, revenue streams and contingency planning, the market is starting to expand and develop new products to address business interruption (“BI”) resulting...
This article address whether, under New York law, a commercial general liability (“CGL”) insurer would be liable for its insured’s breach of contract if the insured botches a building renovation resulting in foul odors permeating the building so much so...
Lawyers who represent insurance companies, banks, insurance agents and other financial institutions in New York should be aware of new Department of Financial Services cybersecurity regulations that become effective January 1, 2017. The new DFS...
Costantino P. Suriano and Daniel Markewich consider a hypothetical lawsuit that a New York liability insurer has defended where the judgment does not exceed the policy limits but the insurer has a sound basis for asserting that part of the judgment is...
Several courts recently addressed the issue of whether lawyers may serve as whistleblowers against their former clients when doing so results in the disclosure of confidential client information. The Second Circuit, in Fair Laboratory Practices...
