The Killian Firm, P.C.

EUGENE KILLIAN, JR. is an AV-rated® graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A., English, with honors) and the University of Michigan Law School. Repeatedly named one of New Jersey’s “Super Lawyers,” as well as one of the “Best Lawyers in America,” Gene practiced with one of the nation’s preeminent insurance coverage law firms before starting his own law firm in 1995, which is now known as The Killian Firm, P.C.

Fighting the Delay, Deny, Defend games that insurance companies play

By Gene Killian

August 26, 2020

We have a coverage case in the office that’s 15 years old, with no end in sight. The amazing thing is, it’s not even a particularly complicated case. I don’t want to go into too much detail or give the names of the parties, because the matter is still pending. But even if we eventually get the carriers to pay the claim, they’ve won, because they’ve already invested the premium dollars and the potential claim…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

Frozen pizza, the sistership exclusion, and an insurance company’s duty to defend

By Gene Killian

June 18, 2020

My maternal grandfather, Pasquale Cupito, was a legend. I have far too many stories to list here, but one of them involves a giant garbage can lid that he used as a cooking utensil. See, he could make a mean homemade pizza, but there was never enough to keep everyone satisfied. One day he concluded that a garbage can lid might make a dandy and enormous pizza pan, so he hammered one out, washed it,…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

The professional negligence of insurance brokers

By Gene Killian

April 30, 2020

I promise not to discuss COVID-19 in detail in this post. The recent deluge of hot legal takes about the pandemic may be making a lot of people sicker than the virus itself. So, let’s talk about a different, earlier disaster. Believe it or not, eight years after the winds of Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey, they’re still blowing through the state’s court system. Recently, the Appellate Division upheld a multimillion-dollar verdict against an insurance…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

Business Interruption Insurance and COVID-19

By Gene Killian

March 25, 2020

In the 2008 film Wall-E, Earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland with nothing on it but the abandoned remnants of human society, and a forlorn, trash-compacting robot. The robot’s only living company is a pet cockroach named Hal, which I guess is Pixar’s nod to the popular notion that cockroaches will outlive us all. (Or maybe it’s a tribute to Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey.) You know what else will outlive us all? Law firm…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

Detecting fraudulent certificates of insurance

By Gene Killian

February 27, 2020

Here’s a piece of useless trivia for you. You know that old saying that something “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”? The saying apparently originated back in 1861, when Count Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen (remember him?), an Austrian statesman, was presented with a document recognizing Italy as a nation-state, and first uttered those now-familiar words. You might want to remember Count Johann’s opinion the next time someone shows you a certificate of insurance. …

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

New cyber-liability insurance coverage decisions from the federal courts

By Gene Killian

January 10, 2020

Not long ago, there was a kerfuffle over the use of the term “OK, Boomer,” which I guess is a pejorative term aimed at my generation for being out-of-touch with the modern world. (See the Vox article here.) Truth be told, maybe we are out of touch, at least about some things. As someone who grew up without a laptop or an iPhone, and whose family had a rotary phone on the wall, with…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

The problem of illusory coverage

By Gene Killian

November 8, 2019

In the “Cheese Shop” sketch from the old Monty Python comedy series, John Cleese plays a customer trying to buy some cheese from “Ye National Cheese Emporium, purveyor of fine cheese to the gentry (and the poverty-stricken too)”. The cheese shop proprietor, played by Michael Palin, seems to have no cheese in stock, not even common varieties like cheddar. Cleese keeps trying, by asking for different and increasingly obscure types of cheese, but Palin only…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

A tragic story, and the meaning of “intent” in insurance law

By Gene Killian

September 25, 2019

If you’re involved in the legal business for any length of time, every once in a while, you’ll come across a case in which the facts are so horrible, and the result so seemingly wrongheaded, that you can’t help but feel that our entire system has failed. A recent decision from the Third Circuit, Arena v. RiverSource Life Insurance Co., which you can read here, sadly falls into that category. Christine Arena was a…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

Enforcing insurance coverage for intellectual property claims

By Gene Killian

August 13, 2019

Because most people think that insurance law is about as exciting as watching grass grow, I try to be somewhat entertaining in these posts. Probably I usually fail, but at least I keep myself amused. If there’s one thing that we wannabe comedians hate, though, it’s being upstaged. I was recently reading a decision from a federal appeals court in a case called Sterngold Dental, LLC v. HDI Insurance Company, and the judge who wrote…

New Jersey Insurance Coverage Litigation

Your life insurance may be illegal

By Gene Killian

June 28, 2019

In Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir masterpiece, “Double Indemnity,” Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect on his accident policy. (Who knew insurance could be so seedy?) The suspicious and relentless claims adjuster, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), eventually gets to the bottom of the scheme, and along the way, delivers a great (and hilariously overdramatic) movie speech about the important role his job plays: “Desk…

The Killian Firm, P.C.

The Killian Firm, P.C. Blogs

Blog Authors

Fighting the Delay, Deny, Defend games that insurance companies play

Frozen pizza, the sistership exclusion, and an insurance company’s duty to defend

The professional negligence of insurance brokers

Business Interruption Insurance and COVID-19

Detecting fraudulent certificates of insurance

New cyber-liability insurance coverage decisions from the federal courts

The problem of illusory coverage

A tragic story, and the meaning of “intent” in insurance law

Enforcing insurance coverage for intellectual property claims

Your life insurance may be illegal

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