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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, July 29, 2020

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will explore the nationwide impact of a unanimous decision in favor of corporate policyholders by the California Supreme Court in April 2020. Policyholders can identify which policy years have the best coverage, collect, and let the carriers resolve further allocation. Any business with successive years of multi-layered policies to cover potential "long-tail" liabilities will benefit.

Faculty

Celia B. Waters
Attorney
Saxe, Doernberger & Vita, P.C.

Exclusively representing policyholders, Ms. Waters focuses her practice on complex insurance litigation matters with a special focus on power, oil and energy. Since joining the firm, she has dedicated her time to a number of complex builder’s risk insurance coverage disputes on large construction projects and central utility plants across the country. Ms. Waters has also worked on professional liability coverage disputes associated with design-build projects relating to propane dehydrogenation and hydrocracking plants located in the Middle East.

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Jeffrey S. Raskin
Partner
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Mr. Raskin is head of the firm’s Insurance Recovery Practice in the San Francisco office. He has represented clients involved in litigation, arbitration and mediation in matters related to insurance coverage, environmental disputes, and IP disputes, among others. Mr. Raskin has handled insurance matters seeking recovery for catastrophic losses in environmental, asbestos, silica, toxic tort, product liability, and securities cases.

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Description

Resolving when and in what order a policyholder may access primary and excess insurance coverage is always challenging. This is particularly true when there are multiple-years of layered primary and excess policies to cover claims made or settled long after the insurance policy expired. Many policies attempt to specify the order of coverage access and often make benefits available only after "other insurance" has been exhausted.

In Montrose Chemical Corp. v. The Superior Ct. of Los Angeles Cty, the court held that “other insurance” clauses do not clearly specify whether a rule of horizontal or vertical exhaustion and that the analysis is governed instead by other policy provisions, such as those addressing the attachment of liability and information contained within the schedules of underlying insurance in the excess policies. Policyholders can identify which policy years have the best coverage, collect, and leave the carriers to resolve further allocation among themselves.

Nonetheless, carriers may still hold a great deal of power by refusing to settle until after concluding allocation matters.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses this ruling, how policyholders benefit, and why the impact of this decision is not limited to California jurisdictions.

Outline

  1. Overview of primary and excess policies
  2. How vertical and horizontal exhaustion of policy limits differ
  3. The role of excess coverage for "long-tail" claims involving continuous or progressive injuries
  4. The impact of the California ruling in Montrose Chemical on future claims

Benefits

The panel will review these and other contentious issues:

  • The interplay between primary and excess insurance
  • Excess, multi-year coverage in the context of latent or "long-tail" injury
  • How policyholders can use vertical exhaustion to maximize coverage and benefits