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…

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…

“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.” [Genesis 7:17.] I’m guessing that people didn’t have flood insurance in the times of Genesis.  Many people and businesses don’t have it now. The problem is, if water is involved in an insurance claim…

There’s a very true old quote about interpreting insurance policies that I (and other policyholder lawyers) like to cite.  It goes: “Ambiguity and incomprehensibility seem to be the favorite tools of the insurance trade in drafting policies. Most are a virtually impenetrable thicket of incomprehensible verbosity…The miracle of it all is that the English language can be subjected to such abuse and will remain an instrument of communication.” Universal Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Travelers Ins.…

The great American humorist and writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-circa 1914) published a famous work called “The Devil’s Dictionary,” in which he provided astute (if sardonic) definitions of many common terms in the English language. Bierce defined “insurance” for example, as “An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.” I’m thinking of starting “The Devil’s Dictionary: Killian…

Back in the 80s and 90s, during the environmental insurance coverage wars, each side (insurance companies and policyholders) frequently accused the other of trying to insert imaginary language into insurance policies after losses had happened. Many lawyers put their kids through college arguing about the meaning of the words “sudden” and “accidental,” for example, in the standard-form pollution exclusion. Both sides were fond of quoting from “Alice in Wonderland” in their legal briefs, and particularly…

I once had a coverage case that involved a claim for environmental contamination at a chicken farm. (Yes.  A chicken farm. In New Jersey.)  When we were able to pry the claim file loose in discovery, we noticed that the carrier had spent a grand total of $24 to investigate the complex pollution claim, which involved millions of dollars in cleanup costs. Using that evidence, we were able to get a well-respected judge to hold…