87 results for 'cat:"Insurance" AND cat:"Discovery"'.
J. Chuang grants an insurance firm a declaratory judgment that it does not have a duty to defend a second insurance firm, a vascular center or a doctor in a lawsuit stemming from a patient's death. Months after the patient died, the doctor and vascular center changed insurance providers, so that firm was not yet covering the parties at the time of the patient's death. Therefore, that firm was not responsible to provide medical records requested by the patient's family's counsel, nor was it obligated to indemnify the vascular center and doctor in the lawsuit.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Chuang, Filed On: September 15, 2023, Case #: 8:22cv791, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery, Medical Malpractice
J. Currault grants a request by a downtown hotel in New Orleans and orders its insurance company to provide more responsive answers to its written questions for its “bad faith” claim alleging that the insurer reserved extracontractual damages before arbitration of its contract related to hurricane damage claims. Although courts are divided on the relevance of reserves information in such cases alleging bad faith, the majority of courts have determined that such information is relevant for discovery purposes. Whether reserve information is admissible at trial is a separate inquiry from whether it is discoverable.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv1071, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery, Privilege
J. Prince finds the trial court improperly denied the nonparties' motion to intervene in this suit alleging Farmer's bad faith denial of a homeowner's insurance claim. The District Court of Oklahoma County denied the interveners' request to access information subject to a protective order entered by the trial court in Payne County, and they assert that the information is essential to their cause of action. The interveners had standing to intervene in this action because the trial court did not comply with the Open Records Act when it allowed records in the court file to be sealed or to be filed by the parties under seal. The court did have discretion to deny the request for access to all discovery materials that were not filed of record. Reversed in part.
Court: Oklahoma Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Prince , Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 120257, Categories: insurance, Public Record, discovery
J. Dein denies some motions from both parties in an individual's lawsuit against three insurance companies for unfair insurance claim settlement practices. The individual's motions to strike certain factual allegations and part of two experts' reports is denied, but his motion to withdraw a report is allowed. The insurance companies' motions to strike the individual's memorandum is denied but their motion to strike his statement of undisputed facts and memorandum of law is partially allowed and their motion to include an appeals court decision regarding the individual's post-trial fraud is allowed.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Dein, Filed On: September 12, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv10652, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Experts, discovery
Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for Free
J. Blake denies cross motions for summary judgment from a convenience store chain and its insurance company after concluding that the plain language of their contract is too ambiguous to favor either party. A specific store burned down and the company refused to pay damages, so the chain sued it. Both parties interpret the contract to read in its own favor, but because the language is not clear, discovery is necessary to resolve the dispute.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Blake, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1551, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Property, discovery
J. King grants the interlocal cooperative leave to file a second amended complaint, which arises from its first complaint alleging that the insurance company must defend and indemnify the interlocal cooperative in three underlying sexual abuse lawsuits. Filing a second amended complaint will not cause the insurance company undue prejudice because there is no scheduling order and no one has engaged in discovery yet. The interlocal cooperative must file its second amended complaint within seven days of this order.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: King, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv874, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery, Contract
J. Huntsman denies the insurance company's motion to quash portions of a document subpoena in this lawsuit concerning the insurance claim on an automobile accident. The insurance company conceded that the requested materials are relevant in its prior argument to the court seeking documents from another non-retained expert. Also, the company lacks standing to object to the burden of the request, which seeks certain financial records from the analyst.
Court: USDC Northern District of Oklahoma , Judge: Huntsman, Filed On: July 27, 2023, Case #: 4:22cv369, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Experts, discovery
J. Shields finds that an insurance provider must produce all but one document that a securities broker seeks for its denial of coverage action in which the broker alleges it was denied coverage for losses stemming from a rogue employee's scheme to misappropriate investor funds for his own personal benefit. An in-camera review reveals that the bulk of the documents, which include various emails that were exchanged between an outside counsel, an in-house claims adjuster and the company's counsel, are not protected under attorney-client privilege or work product protection, save for one 17-page letter written by the outside counsel containing legal opinions.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Shields, Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv6665, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery
J. Howell allows the expert opinions and testimony of a forensic accountant in an insurance dispute over storm damages allegedly caused to an apartment complex by Winter Storm Uri in 2021. The insurance company argues that the expert was not accurately gauging the valuation and occupancy rate of the apartment, but while there are "obvious flaws" in some of the expert's opinions, that by itself "does not render them inadmissible."
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Howell, Filed On: July 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv735, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Experts, discovery
J. Palk grants the insurance company's motion to quash, as well as the nonparty law firm's motion to quash, in this breach of contract lawsuit involving an underinsured motorist policy. The individual plaintiff has failed to articulate how certain categories of information are relevant to his claims. Also, the requested PowerPoint slides are protected by attorney-client privilege. Accordingly, the subpoenas at issue are quashed.
Court: USDC Western District of Oklahoma , Judge: Palk, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv349, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery, Privilege
J. Duffin partially grants the insured's motion to compel discovery for the bad-faith claim in her lawsuit against the insurance company over underinsured motorist benefits she is attempting to claim stemming from in a car accident. The insured is granted limited discovery regarding the formula and method the company uses to calculate its cash reserves, and the company is ordered to produce a complete attorney-client privilege log within 21 days. The insured's motion is denied as to her demand that the company identify its people "most knowledgeable" of certain facts, and resolution is deferred as to other matters withheld by the company based on work product, attorney-client privilege and post-litigation information, as well as discovery of its actual cash reserve amount. The company's motion for a protective order and court review of its privilege log is denied, and the insured's motion for sanctions is denied without prejudice.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Duffin, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv200, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery, Contract
J. Burkhardt denies the insured's motion for discovery relating to his lawsuit arising from a dispute over benefits under several disability income insurance policies the insurance company issued to the insured, who claims to be totally disabled as of May 2020. The insured is seeking to learn whether outside counsel transmitted certain claim file documents to the insurance company and what the company then did with those documents. However, such information is protected by attorney-client privilege.
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Burkhardt, Filed On: June 23, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv767, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery
J. Burkhardt partly grants an insured's request for production of documents concerning a dispute with an insurer over several disability income insurance policies. The insured sufficiently shows that the insurer is obligated to produce information regarding the amount it paid to an independent medical examinations company, which may have conducted a biased probe into his insurance claims for injuries he suffered from accidents beginning in 1982.
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Burkhardt, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv767, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, discovery
J. Vance grants summary judgment to an insurance company, ruling against the owner of an office building destroyed by fire on the policyholder’s denial-of-coverage complaint. To the extent the insured argues that its policy required the building owner “only to attempt to maintain a centrally monitored, automatic fire alarm,” that argument is foreclosed by Fifth Circuit precedent governing a similar insurance policy provision that required the insured to maintain a fire suppression system “in complete working order” throughout the term of the insurance policy.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Vance, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv736, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Damages, discovery
J. Van Meerveld orders State Farm to produce contested documents for the court’s private review by June 9, 2023. The auto insurer must “clearly identify” redacted portions of documents it claims are attorney-privileged from the version inadvertently turned over to an insured client suing his carrier for bad faith. The litigant argues that all the documents designated as privileged by State Farm are not entitled to such protections and he refuses to destroy the materials as the insurer requested. Trial is set to begin on Aug. 21, 2023.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Van Meerveld, Filed On: June 6, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv4550, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: insurance, discovery, Attorney Fees
J. Bourgeois grants requests by a physician and an orthopedic clinic, quashing an insurer’s subpoenas for 25 of 27 categories of documents. The ruling finds good cause to protect both clinic and the physician, a litigant’s rebuttal expert in a personal injury case, from the insurer’s overly broad and burdensome requests. The physician, under penalty of perjury, estimates that compliance with one request would require him to spend at least 30 minutes reviewing over 4,000 individual patient charts at his standard fee of $2,000 per hour (i.e. over $4 million). Requiring the production of documents sought for the sole purpose of providing potential statistical evidence to undermine the medical expert’s bias and credibility would be overly burdensome and disproportionate to the needs of the case.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Bourgeois, Filed On: June 1, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv153, NOS: Motor Vehicle - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: insurance, Experts, discovery