In AIU Ins. Co. v. Veras, decided by the Appellate Division, First Department on April 24, 2012 (2012 NY Slip Opinion 03116), the court found a 15-day delay by State Farm in issuing its disclaimer to be unreasonable in violation of Insurance Law §3420(d)'s timely denial requirements.

In Citizen's Ins. Co. of American doing business as Hanover v. Hatzigeorgiou, 2012 NY Slip Opinion 02952 decided by the First Department on April 19, 2012, the court affirmed the denial of plaintiff-insurer's motion to renew, finding their failure to present a subsequent denial letter did not provide a basis for a grant of renewal. Plaintiff asserted they timely disclaimed coverage, providing a July 9, 2008 letter.

The New York State Bar Association will host a seminar entitled Advanced Insurance Coverage at five venues across New York on May 21, June 1 and June 7.

In Christ the King Regional High School, et al. v. Zurich Ins. Co. of North America, 2012 NY Slip Op 00480 (2nd Dept. Jan. 24, 2012), the Court found that the policy definition of additional insured status was satisfied where the contract included language requiring a “[c]ertificate of [i]insurance freeing [the school] of all liability”] to be obtained.

In O'Keefe v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2011 NY Slip Op. 09103 (2nd Dept. 2011) plaintiff broughtt an action to recover damages for breach of the insurance contract which included a cause of action to recover punitive damages and attorney's fees from Allstate Insurance Company. The court held that the trial court properly dismissed the complaint insofar as it was asserted against employees individually of defendant Allstate as they could not be held personally liable to the plaintiff.

In Tower Ins. Co. v. NHT Owners, LLC, 2011 NY Slip Op. 09167 (1st Dept. 2011), the court found it unnecessary to reach the question of whether the insured's notice some 62 days after the occurrence was timely as they found that the insurer's denial, issued 33 days after it was afforded notice of the incident, was untimely as a matter of law where premised solely on the insured's untimely notice of the incident which was readily apparent upon receipt of notice

In The Roman Catholic Diocese v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., 87 AD3d 1057 (2nd Dept. 2011), the court determined that alleged acts of sexual abuse in an underlying action constituted multiple occurrences, that the settlement amount and any "additional consideration" are to be allocated on a pro rata basis over seven policy periods and the plaintiffs must exhaust a $250,000 self-insured retention for each Commercial General Liability policy implicated.

On October 17, 2011 in Taveras v. American Transit Insurance Company, 2011 NY Slip Opinion 51831, a trial court in Brooklyn awarded bad faith damages of $2,250,000 plus interest from April 14, 2006 against American Transit. Justice Schack of the Supreme Court, Kings County began his 60 page decision with colloquy between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise from the classic scene in A Few Good Men, concluding that American Transit refused not only to acknowledge the truth, but to handle it.

In Re East 51st Street Crane Collapse Litigation, 2011 Slip Op 03912 (1st Dept. May 2011), the court found that settlement by Lincoln General Insurance Company under a commercial general liability policy issued to defendant, Joy Contractors, Inc., extinguished Lincoln’s obligations to provide a defense for the insured and additional insured under the Joy policy.

In Ciampa Estates, LLC v. Tower Insurance Company, 2011 Slip Op 03911 (1st Dept. May 2011), the court reminded us that timely notice by a named insured does not satisfy the independent obligation of an additional insured to similarly provide notice of a claim or loss. Notice from another insured or from another source does not satisfy an insured’s obligation to provide timely notice and this was not a situation where two parties were united in interest, which provides an exception to this general rule.