Key Insurance Coverage Decisions Of 2019

In 2018, state and federal courts issued decisions on several new and emerging insurance issues, including coverage for losses stemming from cryptocurrency transactions, cyber bullying and data breaches.

In 2019, consequential decisions mostly concerned new variations on long-standing issues.

Courts rejected a number of tried-if-not-true coverage defenses, including overly broad interpretations of the contract exclusion, the war risk exclusion, the so-called “polluter’s exclusion” and late notice, while also affirming on several fronts the breadth of the D&O coverage grant.

The 2019 docket also holds cautionary tales for policyholders, including the imperative to be thorough when seeking assignment of insurance coverage while acquiring a company.