Labor Day has just passed as I write this, and this summer (that went by too quickly) was a busy one for the New Jersey appellate courts, insurance-wise. The New Jersey Supremes, for example, dealt with a question often posed by our clients in construction defect cases: Namely, can a claimant proceed directly against a
Contract construction
More developments in insurance coverage for construction defects
Back in the days of the environmental insurance coverage wars, we on the policyholder side argued (eventually successfully in New Jersey) that the word “sudden”, as used in the 1973 version of the pollution exclusion, meant “unexpected” and did not have a temporal connotation. My friends in the defense bar often criticized us for trying…
Insurance coverage for construction defects
By Gene Killian on
The ongoing battles over construction defect coverage remind me of the good old days in the ‘80’s and ‘90s when we used to fight over asbestos and environmental coverage claims (we still have some of those claims, but to a much lesser extent). Construction defects even involve battles over the appropriate trigger of coverage! Ah…
Insurance Coverage for Alleged Intentional Harm
I’ve sometimes commented on this blog that my first boss in the business warned me: “If you assume there’s no coverage, you won’t find any.” There are plenty of risk managers and brokers who believe that general liability insurance coverage exists primarily to protect against people falling down in the parking lot. Not suprisingly, many…
Insurance coverage for asbestos-related liabilities
By Gene Killian on
Every once in a while, I wonder where the last 30 years have gone, and I think about all the cases and clients that we’ve handled during that time. A lot has changed since I started practicing law. In the old days, for example, we actually relied upon a dictation pool! We would dictate our…
“Ordinance or Law” Coverage for Costs of Repair
I was saddened to learn that Judge Ruggero Aldisert, formerly of the Third Circuit, recently passed away. I never had the privilege of appearing before Judge Aldisert, and I never met the man, but I feel indebted to him for writing two excellent books that were published through NITA: “Logic for Lawyers” and “Winning on…
Why are insurance policies so confusing?
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Contract construction
Massachusetts coverage attorney Nina Kallen has taken me to task on the question of why most insurance policies are an abominable mess to read. (My original post dealt with business interruption coverage). You can read her piece by clicking here. Can’t say I disagree.
Calculating Business Interruption Damages
By Gene Killian on
When I was in college, there was an English professor named Frank Kinahan, who taught a class called “The Little Red Schoolhouse.” A lot of my fellow students (not me, of course!) apparently thought that if they could just write their papers in enough of an arcane and convoluted manner, people (including their professors) would…
Additional Insured Coverage
Years ago, there was a Bell Labs facility behind my house, and on Sunday afternoons, the engineers (mostly Indian and Pakistani) would get together and play cricket on the large lawn. I watched the matches quite a bit, but I never could get a grip on the rules. Then a British friend told me that…
The Allocation of Defense Costs in Long-Tail Claims
By Gene Killian on
The great CLE instructor Jim McElhaney, a Professor Emeritus at Case Western, used to tell the story of a “professional expert” testifying at trial on cross-examination. The guy was apparently a kindly old gentleman with an Irish brogue, and also an engineer, and indeed made most of his money in the litigation game.
“You’re a…