For Nine-Inch Nails fans and the rest of the mosh pit crowd, “Lollapalooza” was a traveling music festival that brought alternative rock, hip hop and punk music—along with certain other fringe elements—to cities throughout the heartland every summer. Kind of a Woodstock with a 90’s twist.
Actually, the word “Lollapalooza” is an early 20th century American idiom that meant “remarkable or wonderful person or thing.” The term also refers to those huge carnival lollipops. In fact, the little guy on the original Lollapalooza festival logo has an all-day sucker in his hand.
A lollapalooza of a different sort is now available on the insurance law center. It’s a commentary piece written by Philadelphia coverage attorney Randy Maniloff that is aptly titled “Insurance-Palooza.” Randy’s 7th annual look at the year’s ten most significant coverage cases is informative, engaging and yes, even funny. It’s so well written, you’d swear he was a journalist instead of a lawyer.
The section Randy devotes to Cinergy Corporation, et al. v. Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Services, Ltd., a global warming case in which the Indiana Supreme Court struggled to find coverage in spite of clear law and policy language to the contrary, is my personal favorite. According to Maniloff, the Indiana Supreme Court often makes valiant efforts to find coverage on behalf of policyholders, but the inconvenient truth in Cinergy was that there could be no coverage for global warming compliance costs absent something that at least resembled an occurrence.
I was also pleased to see that the Katrina Canal Breaches and Catholic Mutual decisions made the cut. Randy’s analysis of the complex issues raised in these cases is right on the money.
Subscribers to
Mealey's Litigation Report: Insurance have already received Randy’s 20-page commentary. The rest of you can access a PDF of the article for the next week or so directly from the insurance law center. Just click
here, or go to the link that we’ve placed in the Product Update section of this web site.
We’re also offering a link to a podcast that Randy recently recorded with us in the insurance center’s Product Update section. Listen at your leisure as Randy describes the selection process that he follows when choosing his annual top ten. You can also grab the podcast from our Weekly Wrap Up section.
I think coverage expert David Rossmiller said it best when he gave a complimentary shout out to Randy’s article in his
insurance coverage law blog. Rosmiller, who is a member of our Insurance Law Center Advisory Board, wrote: “When you've got a long piece of careful analysis that is also written with style and humor, you've got something pretty rare on your hands.”
After you’ve read Randy’s article and listened to his podcast, I invite you to post your comments. If you think the piece is particularly wonderful and impressive—a true Lollapalooza—you can let Randy know too; his contact information is in the PDF.
Enjoy your free candy.