Class Action Defense - Insurance

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• Defending a national insurance company in 39 alleged class actions across the country challenging the denial of business interruption coverage for losses claimed to have suffered due to COVID. Cases are pending in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
• Obtained summary judgment for an insurance company in a putative class action challenging the system used to value total loss vehicle claims. Insurance carriers around the country use the same or comparable valuation system and are defending similar class actions. The court granted summary judgment in the insurance company’s favor on all claims, including breach of contract, bad faith, and unfair and deceptive trade practices act violations.
• Obtained summary judgment for an insurance company in a consumer class action alleging under-valuations and underpayments of actual cash value on property and loss claims. The court granted both motions in limine to exclude plaintiffs’ experts, and granted summary judgment on all plaintiffs’ claims, which mooted their motion for class cert which was therefore also denied.
• Obtained reversal of certification of a class of more than 44,000 insureds against State Farm Insurance in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied. The seminal decision explained and applied several principles of certification of a class action under Rule 23(b)(2) not previously addressed in prior authorities and authoritatively rejected the use of injunctive relief on a class basis for consumer claims.
• Obtained affirmance of a summary judgment in favor of Chicago Title, which was accused by a certified class of Florida homeowners of overcharging homeowners for title insurance in their mortgage refinance transactions. The Third District Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court’s summary judgment that language in a Florida regulation did not impose an obligation on title insurers or their agents to conduct such a search or to disclose the availability of a lower reissue rate to the borrower in the refinance transaction. Appellant filed a motion for rehearing en banc, which was denied.
• Defended three consolidated, alleged class actions against State Farm asserting claims relating to non-duplication clauses applied to benefits under medical payments and uninsured motorist coverage. A case dispositive certified question of law was accepted by Ohio Supreme Court and answered affirmatively in favor of client, reversing decades-old Ohio Supreme Court precedent that allowed insureds to recover for the same medical expenses twice under the medical payments and uninsured motorists coverages.

• Defending multiple national and regional insurance carriers in more than 15 single and multi-state class actions across the country, asserting claims based on depreciation of labor and of other nonmaterial when adjusting personal and commercial lines’ structural property damage claims.