All too often it is only when there is a major incident that businesses think about the terms of their insurance. However, it is important that businesses understand their insurance coverage obligations ahead of crises to ensure they don’t inadvertently lose the ability to recoup any future losses through insurance when an incident does occur.
Insurance Coverage
Recovering from the CrowdStrike outage
By Cristina Shea, David Ledet & Andrew Kintner on
This article provides an update to a post published on July 23, 2024 by Mark Pring, Andy Moss, and Cristina Shea, which can be found here.
It has now been over a month since cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike rolled out a defective software update that rendered over 8 million computers around the globe temporarily…
Fearing Industry Solvency, Insurers Are Seeking to Leverage “Physical Loss or Damage” Rulings in the COVID-19 Context to Roll Back Historic Coverage Generally
By Rich Lewis on
When the COVID-19 Pandemic incepted, and issues arose as to whether affected policyholders could seek Business Income and Civil Authority coverage from the presence or suspected presence of SARS-CoV-2 and consequent orders of Civil Authority, I thought that the easiest question to answer was whether such policyholders had suffered physical loss or damage (“PLOD”) to…
ECB USA v. Chubb: How the use of linguistics in insurance coverage disputes creates risks and uncertainty for corporate policyholders
By Garrett Nemeroff & R. Hugh Lumpkin on
Introduction
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in ECB USA, Inc. v. Chubb provides several important lessons for corporate policyholders faced with potential coverage issues arising from their consulting or professional services.
The issue in ECB was whether Chubb’s professional services liability policy applied to claims against an accounting firm for a faulty…
Recovering financial losses caused by the CrowdStrike outage
By Mark Pring, Andy Moss & Cristina Shea on
In what is described as the largest cyber loss event in years, on Friday, July 19, 2024, customers of CrowdStrike and many others throughout the world discovered that they could not access critical software and enterprise systems to run their businesses.
The mass outage was due to a defective CrowdStrike software update. The outage notably…
Hit by a hurricane? You may have more coverage than you think
Hurricane Beryl has caused destruction in the Caribbean, Mexico and Texas. Continuing issues include power outages, both rolling and continuous, issues regarding access to clean water, severed communications, roads that remain impassable and issues accessing necessities like food and fuel.
Hurricanes cause dramatic damage to businesses and commercial properties every year, totaling some $9 billion…
Drafting errors must be clear and obvious – a brief look at the English Court of Appeal’s decision in Project Angel Bidco Ltd (In Administration) v Axis Managing Agency Ltd [2024 EWCA Civ 446]
Key Take-aways
- The wording in insurance policies is often taken from precedent wording that has evolved over time. Accordingly, we often see inconsistencies in the wording of policies and/or ambiguity in the provisions setting out the scope of cover. There are often many different interpretations that can be applied to inconsistent wording in a policy,
Subrogation – The limits on stepping into someone else’s shoes
By Eleanor Ruiz, Jamie Fryer & Esme Carey on
In this post, we take a look at an insurer’s right to subrogation – the mechanism that allows them to step into the shoes of the insured – and how, in particular circumstances, that right can be restricted.
We look first at how subrogation applies where there are joint or co-insureds, depending on the specifics…
A blast from the past – unearthed: Court of Appeal dismisses University of Exeter’s appeal
By Mark Pring & Daniel Sahraee on
In 1942, the Luftwaffe dropped a 1000kg high-explosive bomb onto farmland in the outskirts of Exeter.
Some 82 years later, the Court of Appeal has dismissed the University of Exeter’s appeal against the High Court decision in Allianz Insurance Plc v University of Exeter (see our previous commentary) The Judge at first instance (HHJ Bird) had found that damage to halls of residence caused by the bomb’s controlled detonation was not covered under the University’s insurance policy with Allianz.Continue Reading A blast from the past – unearthed: Court of Appeal dismisses University of Exeter’s appeal
Delivery by drone? Insurance needed!
By Laura-May Scott on
Online retailers have changed the way we shop. No longer do we spend hours in line queuing for a can opener or, perhaps more appropriately in current times, an air fryer. Nowadays, at the click of a button, we have items expeditiously delivered straight to our door. And soon, it will be straight to our door without a human touch.
Last year, certain retailers began trialling drone delivery, marking the dawn of a new era of deliveries.
This latest development is one the insurance market cannot ignore. The drone insurance market is growing, and it looks like it will continue to do so as technology develops and retailers rely on drones to deliver parcels.Continue Reading Delivery by drone? Insurance needed!