In its recent unpublished decision Allstate New Jersey Insurance Co. v Amazon.com, Inc., No. 3:2017cv02738 (D. N. J. July 24, 2018), the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled that Amazon, Inc. was not liable as the seller of a laptop battery that allegedly caught fire and destroyed the customer’s home.
Force-placed policies can limit homeowner recovery
Is that a real 1959 Clos Saint-Denis? Your vintage wine may not be real . . . and you probably aren’t covered for the loss.
A California court of appeal recently held a wealthy wine merchant (connoisseur is almost certainly too gracious a term here) could not recover for his financial loss when he discovered his “vintage” wine was actually counterfeit. Doyle v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., No. G054197, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 187 (Ct. App. Mar. 7, 2018)
Court finds widow's suit on husband’s life insurance policy time barred even though her lawsuit was filed shortly after his death
In a case that highlights the sometimes harsh nature of statutes of limitations, a federal court in Southern California granted defendant USAA’s motion for summary judgment on all claims brought by a widow because she failed to file her lawsuit on time. Earlywine v. USAA Life Ins. Co., No. 3:17-CV-328-CAB-NLS, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16968 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 1, 2018).
Florida: pending appraisal no bar to lawsuit
In Florida, policyholders must first file a civil remedy notice (CRN) against their insurer before they can file a lawsuit claiming bad faith. A Florida appeals court recently made it easier (and hopefully quicker) to file bad faith suits against insurance companies, holding that a policyholder need not wait until the appraisal process was completed, a typical requirement mandated by insurance policies, before filing a CRN. Landers v. State Farm Florida Ins. Co., No. 5D15-4032, 2018 WL 472407 (Fla. Ct. App. Jan. 19, 2018).