2008 Articles

Case names and holdings December 2008 Where contractor was an additional insured under a subcontractor’s liability policy for “liability arising out of [the subcontractor’s] work” and a third party complaint alleged the subcontractor’s work to be negligent, the insurer had a duty to defend the contractor.

Case names and holdings June 2008 HOLDING: Insurer that sued two of its former agents for breach of contract and tortuous interference arising out of agents’ solicitation of former customers after termination of the agency using confidential information extracted from insurer’s computers, filed declaratory judgment action seeking to establish whether it had a duty to defend agent pursuant to personal and advertising injury coverage in a business owners liability policy.

Case names and holdings March 2008 HOLDING: Insured failed to satisfy condition precedent to coverage by not giving immediate notice to insurer when insured knew of an occurrence which would cause it to incur costs likely to be paid by insurer.

Case summaries December 2008 Holabird and Root (H & R) served as general contractor for the construction of the City of Chicago’s leased space in the Goldblatt building, owned by DePaul University.

Case summaries June 2008 HOLDING: Insurer that sued two of its former agents for breach of contract and tortuous interference arising out of agents’ solicitation of former customers after termination of the agency using confidential information extracted from insurer’s computers, filed declaratory judgment action seeking to establish whether it had a duty to defend agent pursuant to personal and advertising injury coverage in a business owners liability policy.

Case summaries March 2008 Summaries of recent cases of interest to insurance law practitioners.

Connecticut Attorney General files antitrust lawsuit against Guy Carpenter March 2008 In 2004, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer charged several large insurance brokers with improperly attempting to use their leverage with insurers to make contingent commissions bonuses a certainty rather than a possibility without disclosing the situation to their customers.

From the Chair By Patricia A. Zimmer December 2008 Greetings to all! I apologize that The Policy has been MIA recently, but we have had some shake-up in the editorial staff.

From the Chair By Robert Handley March 2008 A message from Section Chair Robert Handley.

Legislative and regulatory update June 2008 In January, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Insurance, notified all multi-peril crop insurance agents of increased efforts to eliminate rebating schemes by several entities involved in the sale of Federal Crop Insurance.

Selected insurance legislation in the 95th General Assembly June 2008 Construction Safety Act of 2008, aka, “Structural Work Act Reenactment.” Opposed by both the construction and insurance industries which have engaged a massive lobbying effort to kill it.

State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company v. Habitat Construction Company By Bruce Lichtcsien June 2008 Construction accidents have historically provided fertile ground for civil litigation.