SAN FRANCISCO - A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 10 reversed summary judgment in an elbow prosthesis case, finding that a trial court erred in excluding a plaintiff expert because he did not know the cause of the device's failure...

GRETNA, La. - A Louisiana appeals panel on March 9 affirmed a jury's $3.64 million award for actual damages and $5,000 in bad faith penalties to an insured stemming from the insured's claims that the insurer's $467,218 tender was insufficient to cover the...

CHICAGO - An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 11 denied a motion to dismiss by a defendant in a benzene case, holding that the plaintiff's claim is based in negligence, not strict liability, and therefore the defendant's reliance on the statute of repose is...

Case: Allstate Insurance Co. v. Ralph B. Breeden, No. 09-35626, 9th Cir. Appellant's brief: Filed Dec11 by Ralph BBreedenBrief available 50-100311-010B Full story on lexis.com

ATLANTA - An insurer fulfilled its duties to its policyholder "by trying, though unsuccessfully, to obtain . . . a release from liability" in an underlying personal injury case, a panel in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a per curium opinion...

LOS ANGELES - The California bankruptcy judge overseeing Thorpe Insulation Co. and Pacific Insulation Co.'s Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 1 signed an order confirming the debtor's fifth amended joint plan of reorganization and issued her findings of fact and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A disability claimant is a prevailing party entitled to a fee award under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act despite a district court's ordering the insurer to reconsider all of the evidence rather than the district court's awarding...

MILWAUKEE - A Wisconsin boy who alleges that he has lead poisoning on Jan. 28 sued six former manufacturers of lead-based paint in federal court, contending that the defendants are strictly liable for his injuries (Cesar Sifuentes, a minor, by his guardian...

RENO, Nev. - An insurer cannot deny coverage to its insured for underlying personal injury and wrongful death claims arising out of carbon monoxide poisoning because the policy's indoor air and pollution exclusions are ambiguous and susceptible to more than...

STATEN ISLAND, NY - A New York Supreme Court justice refused to reduce or set aside a jury's $22.5 million award to a man who contracted polio more than 30 years ago while changing his daughter's diaper after she had received Lederle Laboratories Orimune oral...

JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Feb. 11 that the term "occurrence" in a commercial general liability insurance policy cannot be construed to preclude coverage for unexpected or unintended "property damage" resulting from a subcontractor's...

NEW YORK - The New York federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the Bernard L. Madoff proceedings on March 1 granted approval to the court-appointed trustee's "Net Investment Method" for determining net equity for individual claimants (In Re: Bernard L. Madoff...

NEW ORLEANS - Oral arguments are scheduled for April 7 in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in the defense appeal of a $2.4 million judgment for a welder and his wife who prevailed in a March 2008 trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court on March 8 affirmed an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that attorneys are debt relief agencies when they provide qualifying services but reversed the appellate court's ruling that a portion of the federal...

CHICAGO - A $14.6 million settlement was reached Feb. 24 in an Illinois circuit court, bringing to a close an action involving a student who broke his neck and was rendered quadriplegic while using a mini trampoline during an extracurricular tumbling class...

SAN FRANCISCO - Material misrepresentations on an employment practices liability policy application entitle the insurer to rescind the policy, a California federal judge ruled Feb. 17 (Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. v. RDD Inc., et al., No. C 09-00856, N.D....

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Denying a reinsurer's motion to disqualify an arbitration umpire because the umpire serves as the reinsurer's adversary's party-appointed arbitrator in other unrelated disputes, a federal judge in Connecticut on Feb. 22 noted that because...

FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas jury found March 1 that a couple pursuing a long-running battle with their builder deserve more than $58 million in compensatory and punitive damages, but the builder plans to appeal the verdict (Robert E. Cull and S. Jane Cull...

AUSTIN, Texas - Claims that Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. improperly charged its business customers certain municipal fees are not suitable for class certification, a divided Texas Supreme Court ruled Feb. 19 (Southwestern Bell Telephone Company v. Marketing...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Underlying claims stemming from a wrongful arrest and conviction against a community college insured and its police officers arose from the rendering of or failure to render "professional services," and, therefore, coverage is precluded...