In re Professionals Direct Ins. Co., 2009 WL 2581289 (6th Cir. Aug. 24, 2009), the court denied Professionals Direct Insurance Company’s petition for writ of mandamus to vacate a discovery order entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. In denying the petition, the court limns the extent to which an insurer’s coverage file is subject to discovery in coverage litigation.
The claim arises out of an action for malpractice brought against the Wiles, Boyle, Burkholder & Bringardner Co., an Ohio law firm specializing in insurance defense. In 2001, Wiles was retained by Illinois National Insurance Company to defend a suit against an employee of one of Illinois National’s insureds. Wiles was not successful in its defense, and…
We do not ordinarily address trial and appellate practice in this space, but a recent decision from the Eighth Circuit makes such commentary unavoidable. Moore v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 2009 WL 2476689 (8th Cir. August 14, 2009) affirms a $2.3 million judgment on a claim for bad faith. Much of the decision is given over to findings that AFMI failed to preserve for appellate review instructional and evidentiary error. The decision thus provides a rather useful primer on the preservation of trial error.
Moore purchased from Walsh County, North Dakota, an unoccupied duplex located in a flood plain, on condition that it be moved by a date certain. AFMI insured the property for $50,000. Five weeks before the deadline for moving the duplex had…
On August 11, 2009, the Fifth Circuit affirmed in a terse two-page opinion a $21. 6 million jury verdict in favor of a New Orleans grocer., including a $1 million bad faith award against United Fire & Casualty. Marketfare Annunciation, LLC v. United Fire and Casualty Co., No. 08-30795, 2009 WL 2447938 (5th Cir. Aug. 11, 2009). In order to get some sense of the case, it is necessary to consult the docket entries for the case in Pacer. There is less significance to this case than first appears. A review of the underlying Petition reveals that this was not a case in which the paradigmatic Katrina coverage issue of wind or flood was in play, but rather concerned a…
