Commercial General Liability Dispatch

Tressler’s experienced Insurance attorneys provide the latest commercial general liability news and insights.

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By: Tressler LLP

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Dibora Berhanu
Danita Davis Sudac
Michael DiSantis
Jamie Gende
William McVisk
Anthony Tessitore

Latest from Commercial General Liability Dispatch

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In Illinois Tool Works, Inc. v. Ace Specialty Ins. Co., 2019 IL App (1st) 181945, the Illinois Appellate Court upheld the lower court’s grant of partial summary judgment to two insurance companies holding that the insurers had no duty to defend an insured in a pre-suit mediation of environmental contamination claims as said claims did not constitute a “suit” within meaning of the applicable commercial general liability (“CGL”) policy. On appeal, the court…
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In Navigators Ins. Co. v. American Home Assurance Co., 2019 WL 2583253, — S.W.3d —- (Mo. Ct. App. 2019), the Missouri Court of Appeals held that a commercial general liability insurance policy provided no coverage for claims that an electrical cooperative wrongfully installed fiber optic cable on electrical transmission easements. The court held that there was no “property damage” coverage because the use of the easement did not involve tangible property damage and…
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In Sterngold Dental, LLC v. HDI Global Insurance Company, ___ F.3d___, 2019 WL 2754185 (1st Cir. 2019), the First Circuit was presented the opportunity to address how to construe “the scope of the so-called intellectual property exclusion (IP exclusion) to the personal and advertising injury coverage under a standard commercial general liability policy (the Policy).” Sterngold manufactures and sells dental products. The Policy obtained by Sterngold by HDI Global Insurance Company (“HDI”) obligated…
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In Penn National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company v. Beach Mart, Inc., — F.3d —-, 2019 WL 3483167  (4th Circ. Aug. 1, 2019) (North Carolina law), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina which found that an insurer’s exclusion precluding coverage for injuries arising out of oral or written publication of material whose first publication took place…
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UPDATE: The Third Circuit recently affirmed the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Transportation Ins. Co v. Heathland Hosp. Group LLC, — Fed. Appx. —-, 2019 WL 3383876, at *1 (3d Cir. July 26, 2019), a case which we wrote about last year.  Transportation arose out of a car accident in which the plaintiff’s husband was fatally injured when he was struck by a driver who allegedly became intoxicated…
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In Pennsylvania Manufacturers Indem. Co. v. Pottstown Industrial Complex, LP, 2019 WL 3281746, — A.3d —- (Pa. Super. Ct. July 22, 2019), the Pennsylvania Superior Court held an insurer owed a duty to defend its insured against a tenant’s claim for damage to its inventory from flooding during rainstorms as a result of the insured’s alleged failure to maintain the roof of the building.  Distinguishing well-established Pennsylvania law holding claims for faulty workmanship…
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In All America Ins. Co. v. Lampasona Concrete Court., 120 N.E.2d 1258 (Mass.App.Ct. 2019), a Massachusetts appellate court vacated a trial court’s decision and held the trial court erred in ruling that Exclusion J(6) precluded coverage for the cost of removing and replacing a hospital’s flooring structure when the insured subcontractor had only worked on the concrete slab underlying the floor. All America had sought a declaration that Lampasona’s CGL policy excluded coverage for damage…
In Hershey Creamery Co. v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co., No. 1:18-CV-694, 2019 WL 1988397 (M.D. Pa. May 6, 2019), the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania held a patent and trademark infringement lawsuit against an insured triggered a duty to defend under “personal and advertising injury” coverage.  The dispositive issue was whether the complaint, which was premised on alleged infringement on the plaintiff’s marks in the insured’s in-store signage and…