The 2019 Annual Loss Executives Association Conference was hosted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from January 30 to February 1, 2019.
This article “Lawyers’ Digital Assistants Raise Ethics, Privacy Concerns” was originally published on Law360, May 23, 2019 Is my Amazon Alexa spying on me? Recent years have witnessed the growth and proliferation of voice-activated...
Failure to Allow Inspection of Premises
Williams v. New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association, New York Co. Index No. 151083/2014 (NY Sup. Ct. New York Co. 2019) This case involved the failure of the insured to allow an inspection of his premises. The insured requested an increase...
Enforcement of Appraisal Award
Peter Max v. Great American Security Insurance Company, No. BER-L-7136-18 (N.J. Super. Ct., Law Div., May 21, 2019) In this summary action, the insureds sought judicial review of the terms of an appraisal award that established the amount of loss they...
First-Party Wear and Tear Exclusion
200 Court Street LLC v. Wesco Ins. Co., 2019 WL 3207539, 2019 N.Y. Slip Op. 31945(U) (Queens Co. Sup. Ct. May 20, 2019) This case involved a first-party property insurance dispute in which Wesco Insurance Company denied a claim for wind damage to the...
Coverage for “Residence Premises”
Canale v. Castlepoint Ins. Co., 64 Misc.3d 1208(A), 116 N.Y.S.3d 861 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2019) This case involved a first-party property insurance dispute in which Castlepoint Insurance Company denied a claim for fire damage to a dwelling configured as...
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...
First Party Collapse Claim
Bronx 13 Properties LLC v. Wesco Ins. Co., Index No. 161411/2015 (New York Co. Sup. Ct. Apr. 4, 2019) In this case the insured landlord sought coverage for the collapse of a bathroom floor that allegedly caused damage to several other floors of an...
Jonathan Chernow’s lecture, “But is it real? Addressing fakes and forgeries in the art market from an insurance coverage and risk management perspective,” addressed recent scandals in the news; how to spot forgeries and fakes before they are...
The article, “America Has An Opioid Problem: Who’s Going To Pay To Fix It?,” is available in the AIRROC Matters 2019 Spring Issue and The Society of Actuaries. You can read the article here.
Duty in Tort to Third Parties
Georgoulis & Associates, PLLC v. Air Seal Insulation Systems, Inc. and Boorom Facilities Solutions, LLC, Case No. 51983/12, N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. Co. (May 8, 2019) A New York trial court dismissed all claims against CNC Coatings Corp. i/s/h/a Air Seal...
Arbitrator Qualifications
Park Shore Resort Condominium Association, Inc. v. General Security Insurance Company of Arizona, 2:19-cv-125-Ftm-38MRM (M.D. Fla. May 8, 2019) This matter concerned an arbitration regarding a multi-story condominium resort in Naples. While the...
Mr. Temkin’s presentation of “The Trump Bubble: What Happens When the Longest Bull Market in U.S. History Hiccups?,” was chosen to be included in the 2019 PLDF Annual Meeting. This will take place at the W Lakeshore – Chicago, located at 644 N...
Mr. Lasky will speak about Privacy, Confidentiality, Data Protection and Sanctions Clauses, on Tuesday, July 23rd, from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m The RAA’s Re Contracts Course: The Art of Designing Reinsurance Contracts and Programs will be conducted on Tuesday,...
Commercial General Liability Pollution Exclusion
National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA. v. Burlington Ins. Co., Supreme Court New York, New York County, Index No. 155114/2013 (April 27, 2018) The insured, Mayore Estates, owned a building in Manhattan next to the World Trade Center. In 2005,...
Costantino Suriano was a speaker on behalf of The Loss Executives Association at St. John’s University’s Best and Brightest Students, hosted by Allied World Assurance Holdings in Bermuda on March 29, 2019. For more information please visit:...
For more information please visit:...
Inwood Security Inc. v. Wesco Ins. Co., Index No. 30443/2017E (Bronx Co. Sup. Ct. Apr. 15, 2019) In this property insurance dispute, while the insured and insurer resided in New York County, and the loss allegedly occurred in New York County, the...
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
Williams v. Waypoint Resource Group, LLC, No. 18CV4921ARRRML, 2019 WL 1368998 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 26, 2019) In this class action lawsuit filed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, plaintiff alleged that a debt collection letter sent to her violated...
Partner Emilie Baklan-Caplan will speak at the Perrin Conferences’ Natural Disaster Conference on April 2-3, 2019 at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove, Miami, FL. This one-and-a-half-day conference will feature thought leaders with varied...
Croxton-Narain v. Sterling & Sterling, Inc., No. B285240, 2019 WL 1069601 (Cal. Ct. App. Mar. 6, 2019) Plaintiff worked as an executive account assistant for defendant. She suffered an Ischemic attack and missed over a month of work, prior to being...
Partner Lloyd Gura and special counsel Andrea Fort’s article, “Automatization of Underwriting and the Future of the Reinsurance Relationship,” was published in the March 2019 Journal of Reinsurance. New technology and artificial...
2416 Newkirk v. Wesco Ins. Co., Kings Co. Index No. 502342 (New York Co. Sup. Ct. Feb. 28, 2019) This case involved insurance claims for a theft that took place in an apartment located at 2416 Newkirk Avenue, Brooklyn, and a separate claim for costs...
Loss to Records/Electronic Data
Orloff v. AmTrust Financial, Index No. CV-032757-18/K1 (Kings Co. Sup. Ct. Feb. 13, 2019); Wesco Ins. Co. v. King & Associates, Index No. 650212 (New York Co. Sup. Ct. Aug. 20, 2019) Plaintiff Jason Orloff brought an action for breach of contract...
The New York-based law firm of Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP announced today that Dustin DuBose will be joining the firm as Resident Partner in its new Houston, Texas office. Dustin, a seasoned litigator and advisor, has represented domestic...
Extra-Contractual Damages
Great American Ins. Co. of NY v. L. Knife & Son, Inc., No. 157164/2013, 2019 WL 529276 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Feb. 11, 2019) In granting Great American Insurance Company’s motion to dismiss L. Knife’s counterclaims for attorneys’ fees and other...
Samuel Weiss as Trustee of the Agi Weiss Insurance Trust v. John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York, Index No. 035397/2014 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Rockland Cty, Feb. 14, 2019) In this case, the owner of an $8 million life insurance policy brought a...
Integon Nat’l Ins. Co. v. Chen, 2019 WL 462854, 2019 N.Y. Slip Op. 30286(U) (New York Co. Sup. Ct. Feb 6, 2019) This case involved a third-party liability insurance dispute in which the insureds argued they were entitled to defense and indemnity under...
Misrepresentation and Dwelling Fire
Micle v. MIC Gen. Ins. Corp., 2019 WL 1532685, 2019 NY Slip Op 30840(U) (Queens Co. Sup. Ct. Feb 6, 2019) This case involved a first-party property insurance dispute in which the insurer denied a claim for fire damage to a three-family dwelling. The...
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.”...
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 questions...
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...
No Violation of Federal Debt Collection Practices Act
Taubenfliegel v. Miller & Malone, P.C., Case No. 1:18-cv-01884-ERK-JO (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 17, 2018) Mound Cotton won summary judgment in favor of its client, Miller & Malone, P.C., in an action alleging violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices...
On December 5, 2018, Justice Patrick J. McGrath of the New York Supreme Court, Rensselaer County, issued a decision in the case Black River Partners, et al. v. Adirondack Mechanical Services and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Index No. 252627/2016,...
Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP will be hosting the IRUA/Reinsurance Networking Group Luncheon on Wednesday, January 23rd. The topic of the luncheon presentation will be “Ethics in Arbitration: Is It an Oxymoron? Arbitrator...
First-Party Water Damage Sublimit
Black River Partners, et al. v. Adirondack Mechanical Services and Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., Index No. 252627/2016, New York Supreme Court, Rensselaer County (December 5, 2018) The court held that all the insured’s property damage and resulting business...
Click here to read the full article by Jeffrey Weinstein and Bruce Kaliner!
The program will be offering 7 hours of CLE credit, including one hour of ethics CLE. To register or get more information, visit here.
On November 19, 2018, the Federal Bureau of Investigation New York Division Community Outreach hosted the 16th Annual FBI Citizens’ Academy Graduation Ceremony. Michael R. Koblenz was one of thirty one graduates.
U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” has ranked law firms in 75 national practice areas and 122 metro practice areas for 2019. Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass has been named as a Tier 1 firm in the New York Metropolitan area and in Tier 2...
Dismissal Based on Counsel’s Failure to Appear
New Rainbow Heaven, LLC et al. v. Wesco Ins. Co., N.Y. Co. Index No. 655648/2016 (NY Sup. Ct. NY Co. 2018) This case involved plaintiff-insured’s claim for fire damage to its restaurant. Plaintiff’s counsel sought to withdraw upon the parties’ motions...
Suit Limitation and Late Notice
Brenner v. Hermitage Ins. Co., 2018 NY Slip Op 32667(U), 2018 WL 5261037 (NY Co. Sup. Ct., October 16, 2018) The Brenner case involved a first-party property dispute in which the insured landlord made a claim under his policy following vandalism damage...
Misrepresentation in Property Insurance Application
Perez v. Castlepoint Ins. Co. et al., 2018 N.Y. Slip Op 32668, 2018 WL 5283415 (NY Sup. Ct., Queens Co. October 19, 2018) This litigation involved a first-party property insurance dispute in which the plaintiff-insureds claimed coverage for damages to...
Gregg Hirsch moderated the panel, “The Life Deal Market,” as part of “The Art of the Runoff Deal” sessions at AIRROC’s 2018 NJ 2018 Commutations & Networking Forum on October 15, held at The Westin Jersey City...
Consigned Goods Not Covered Property
Talisman Services, Inc. v. Hermitage Ins. Co., 2018 WL 3859692 (N.Y.Sup.), 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 31955(U) (New York Co. Sup. Ct., Aug 14, 2018) Talisman involved a first-party property insurance dispute where the insured claimed coverage for water damage...
This article was written by Sanjit Shah.[1] 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...
This article was originally published on Professional Liability Insurance Newsletter, American Bar Association, Fall 2018. On June 11, 2018, news broke that the local and federal law enforcement officials had arrested 74 people, including nearly 30 in...
Waiver of Appraisal Right
Versailles Sur La Mer Condominium Ass’n, Inc. v. Lexington Ins. Co., No. 6:18-cv-1125-Orl-37TBS (U.S. District Court, Middle District Florida, July 24, 2018) The firm obtained an order denying plaintiff’s motion to compel Lexington Insurance Company to...
MCWG’s 5th Annual NYC Reinsurance Conference is on Thursday, September 13 at the New York City Bar Association. This conference, chaired by Lloyd Gura, qualifies for CE/CLE credit. For more information or to register, please email...
Barry Temkin discussed whether Michael Cohen committed a crime under New York law when he recorded phone calls he had with President Trump in secret in Law360, “Cohen Tapes Show Broken Attorney-Client Relationship.” (subscription required) ...
To learn more about the Defense Research Institute (DRI), click here.
For more information about the program, please click here. This program offers 4.0 NJ CLE credits (including 1.0 ethics/professionalism credit).
Protective Safeguards Provision
Illinois Union Ins. Co. v. Grandview Palace Condominiums Assoc. Corp., 155 A.D.3d 459 (1st Dep’t 2017), lv denied, 31 N.Y.3d 912 (2018) In this case the New York Court of Appeals denied defendant-insured’s motion for leave to appeal a decision by the...
Earth Movement Exclusion and Lack of Privity
Sebmar LLC v. AmTrust Financial Svcs. et al., New York Supreme Court, Kings County, Index No. 505707/17 (2018) The Sebmar case involved an insurance claim for damage to an apartment building located in Brooklyn. The damage was reportedly caused when...
2416 Newkirk v. Wesco Ins. Co. et al., Kings Co Index No 502342 (NY Sup. Ct. June 15, 2018) This first-party insurance litigation involved insurance claims for a theft that occurred in an apartment building located at 2416 Newkirk Avenue, Brooklyn, and...
Appraisal and First-Party Bad-faith Claim
Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, et al., v. Lexington Insurance Company, et al., Civ. Action No.: 5:14-cv-15201 (S.D. W. Va. June 11, 2018) The district court affirmed an appraisal award in favor of Mound Cotton’s clients, finding that the insurers timely...
For more information, visit here.
MCWG 5th Annual NYC Reinsurance Conference will be taking place on Thursday, September 13, 2018 at the New York Bar Association. This conference is a one-day educational and networking conference for experienced industry professionals. This...
Airport Runway Collapse Claim
Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority, Inc. v. Triad Engineering, Inc., (West Virginia Circuit Court, Mass Litigation Panel, May 2018) The firm obtained an order granting summary judgment in favor of its client, New Hampshire Insurance...
No Private Cause of Action under Unfair Claim Settlement Act
Petrilli v. Adirondack Ins. Exchange, 2018 WL 2322773 (N.Y.Sup.), 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 30941(U) (NY Sup. Ct., Nassau Co., May 16, 2018) This decision involves a first-party property insurance dispute in which plaintiff-insureds claimed their building...
On May 10, 2018, the judges of the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel granted summary judgment in favor of New Hampshire Insurance Company on a $30 million claim arising from the March 2015 collapse of an airport runway extension. New Hampshire was the...
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Third-Party Bad-Faith Claim
Paul Evert’s RV World et al. v. Universal Underwriters Ins. Co., 720 Fed. Appx. 412 (9th Cir. April 25, 2018) The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment obtained by Mound Cotton’s attorneys in a significant third-party bad faith action. The...
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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...
Partner Barry Temkin was recently quoted in an article in Investment News about a risk alert sent out by the Securities and Exchange Commission to advisers in regards to the overcharging of clients: “This might be a good opportunity for advisers...
First-Party Building Collapse Claim
The S.O. Beach Corp. v. Great American Ins. Co. of New York, No. 17-22254-CIV-MORENO, 2018 WL 1732176 (S.D. Fla. April 10, 2018) In a dispute regarding the application of a policy’s collapse coverage, the United States District Court for the Southern...
Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP is pleased to welcome Counsel Laura F. Farrant, who will be joining our Florida office. Effective April 9, 2018
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...
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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...
Marriott Princeton Hotel & Conference Center April 9-10, 2018
NEW JERSEY — On March 14, 2018, Lexington Insurance Company and Aspen Specialty Insurance Company received a decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Atlantic County, granting summary judgment against Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. and related...
Sandy Contingent Business Interruption Claim
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance Company, No.: ATL-L-2458-15 (N.J. Super. Ct., Law Div. March 14, 2018) The court granted summary judgment against Trump Entertainment Resorts and related companies on a $5.1 million claim for...
CGL Policy Does Not Cover Damage to Insured’s Building
New Lahori Kabab Inc. v. 122-24 Lexington Ave. Corp. et al., N.Y. Index 653083/2017 (NY Sup. Ct., NY Co. 2018) This litigation involved the plaintiff-insured’s claim under a commercial general liability policy for property damage to a restaurant....
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Travel Agent Not Liable for Mistakenly Charging Incorrect Credit Card
Gitelman, et al. v. GoGo Worldwide Vacations, GoGo Tours, Inc., et al., Index No. 22004/13 (Sup. Ct. Queens Co. Feb. 20, 2018) Mound Cotton won summary judgment in favor of its clients, GoGo Worldwide Vacations and GoGo Tours, Inc., in New York Supreme...
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Congratulations! The ARIAS U.S. Board of Directors have approved Michael Goldstein for certification as an ARIAS U.S. Arbitrator.
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...
In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a National Public Health Emergency. Three months later, it was confirmed that drug overdose deaths had increased significantly in 2016 to more than 63,600, with more than 42,200 attributed to...
Nonsuit based on Failure to Provide Discovery
Pertef Bylykbashi v. Public Service, Connecticut Superior Court, Docket No. 16-6071062 (January 18, 2018) This lawsuit concerned a first-party property insurance claim involving water damage resulting from roof leaks that occurred on February 25, 2015....
Click the link below to read the article. Finra: More than a quarter of arbitration awards go unpaid
Greenbrier Hotel Corp. v. Lexington Ins. Co., No. 5:14-cv-15201, 2017 WL 589544 (S.D. W. Va. Nov. 29, 2017) This is one of very few recent decisions discussing the standard to apply under West Virginia law to review an appraisal award. The decision is...
Congratulations to Michael Koblenz for graduating the Nassau County Citizen Police Academy.
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...
Illinois Union Ins. Co. v. Grandview Palace Condominiums Assoc. Corp., 155 A.D.3d 459 (1st Dep’t 2017) In this case, the New York State Appellate Division, First Department, overturned a lower court’s ruling that had denied Plaintiffs Great...
Jones v. FC USA, Inc., d/b/a Liberty Travel, No. 17-1126, 2017 WL 5453497 (E.D.Pa. Nov. 14, 2017) MCWG successfully moved on behalf of its client, Liberty Travel, to dismiss a case filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The case, a negligence...
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...
MCWG hosted its 4th annual reinsurance conference, a one-day educational and networking conference for experienced industry professionals. This highly-regarded event is a forum designed for learning from first rate speakers on important and wide-ranging...
Partner Barry Temkin was recently quoted in an article in Investment News about FINRA’s plan to compile a list of high-risk advisers for additional regulatory scrutiny. “I would be deeply concerned by the existence of some kind of list of...
This article,”Tips For Handling Workplace Substance Abuse Under ADA,” was updated and reprinted with permission from Law360, October 11, 2017. The opioid crisis has focused attention on workplace substance abuse like never before. In August,...
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...
Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. J&S Supply Corp., No. 13-CV-4784, 2017 WL 4351523 (S.D.N.Y. September 29, 2017) As previously reported, Mound Cotton won summary judgment on behalf of Liberty Mutual in this third-party coverage action. The court held,...
Barry Inn Realty, Inc. v. Endurance American Specialty Insurance Company and M.G.I. Brokerage Inc. In this first-party property insurance matter, Plaintiff sought coverage after a fire damaged its building in the Bronx, New York. MCWG moved for summary...
Partner Amy Kallal and associate Maegan McAdam presented at RAA’s 2017 Re Claims: Navigating the World of Reinsurance Protection When Loss Strikes, on the topic: “Opioid Epidemic.” For more information, please visit:...