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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Law
Federal Courts’ Recalcitrance In Refusing To Certify State Law Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Issues, Christopher French
Federal Courts’ Recalcitrance In Refusing To Certify State Law Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Issues, Christopher French
Journal Articles
Over 2,000 COVID-19 business interruption insurance cases have been filed in state and federal courts the past two years with most of the cases filed in or removed to federal courts. The cases are governed by state law. Rather than certify the novel state law issues presented in the cases to the respective state supreme courts that ultimately will determine the law applicable in the cases, each of the eight federal circuit courts to issue decisions on the merits in such cases to date has done so by making an Erie guess regarding how the controlling state supreme courts would …
Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Losses: The Cases For And Against Coverage, Christopher French
Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Losses: The Cases For And Against Coverage, Christopher French
Journal Articles
The financial consequences of the government-ordered shutdowns of businesses across America to mitigate the COVID-19 health crisis are enormous. Estimates indicate that small businesses have lost $255 to $431 billion per month and more than 44 million workers have been laid off. When businesses have requested reimbursement of their business interruption losses from their insurers under business interruption policies, their insurers have denied the claims. The insurance industry also has announced that business interruption policies do not cover pandemic losses, so they intend to fight COVID-19 claims “tooth and nail.” More than 450 lawsuits throughout the country already have been …
Insurance Policies: The Grandparents Of Contractual Black Holes, Chris French
Insurance Policies: The Grandparents Of Contractual Black Holes, Chris French
Journal Articles
In their recent article, The Black Hole Problem in Commercial Boilerplate, Professors Stephen Choi, Mitu Gulati, and Robert Scott identify a phenomenon found in standardized contracts they describe as “contractual black holes.” The concept of black holes comes from theoretical physics. Under the original hypothesis, the gravitational pull of a black hole is so strong that once light or information is pulled past an event horizon into a black hole, it cannot escape. In recent years, the theory has been reformulated and now the hypothesis is that some information can escape, but it is so degraded that it is virtually …
Sex, Videos, And Insurance: How Gawker Could Have Avoided Financial Responsibility For The $140 Million Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Verdict, Christopher French
Sex, Videos, And Insurance: How Gawker Could Have Avoided Financial Responsibility For The $140 Million Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Verdict, Christopher French
Journal Articles
On March 18, 2016, and March 22, 2016, a jury awarded Terry Bollea (a.k.a Hulk Hogan) a total of $140 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Gawker Media for posting less than two minutes of a video of Hulk Hogan having sex with his best friend’s wife. The award was based upon a finding that Gawker intentionally had invaded Hulk Hogan’s privacy by posting the video online. The case has been receiving extensive media coverage because it is a tawdry tale involving a celebrity, betrayal, adultery, sex, and the First Amendment. The case likely will be remembered by most …
The Insurability Of Claims For Restitution, Christopher French
The Insurability Of Claims For Restitution, Christopher French
Journal Articles
Does and should a wrongdoer’s liability insurance cover an aggrieved party’s claim for restitution (e.g., a claim for the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains)? This article answers those questions. It does so by first answering the question of whether claims for restitution are covered under the terms of liability insurance policies. Then, after concluding that they are, it addresses the question of whether claims for restitution should be insurable as a matter of public policy and insurance law theory. There are long-standing legal and equitable principles that, on the one hand, dictate that a wrongdoer should not be allowed to benefit …
International B2b Contracts - Freedom Unchained?, Ingeborg Schwenzer, Claudio Marti Whitebread
International B2b Contracts - Freedom Unchained?, Ingeborg Schwenzer, Claudio Marti Whitebread
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
No abstract provided.
Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophes In America, Christopher French
Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophes In America, Christopher French
Journal Articles
Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and lives were left in ruins in the wake of the storms. Nationwide, only approximately 7% of homeowners have insurance that covers flood losses even though the risk of flooding is only increasing as coastal areas continue to be developed and …
The Role Of The Profit Imperative In Risk Management, Christopher French
The Role Of The Profit Imperative In Risk Management, Christopher French
Journal Articles
Risks in the world abound. Every day there is a chance that each of us could be in a car accident. Or, one of us could be the victim of a tornado, flood or earthquake. Every day someone becomes deathly ill from an insidious disease. Our properties are in constant peril—one’s house could catch fire at any time or a tree could fall on it during a storm. Any one of these events could have devastating financial consequences, and they are just a few of the many risks that impact our daily lives. One of the principal ways we manage …
Segmented Settlements Are Not The Answer: A Response To Professor Squire’S Article, How Collective Settlements Camouflage The Costs Of Shareholder Lawsuits, Christopher C. French
Segmented Settlements Are Not The Answer: A Response To Professor Squire’S Article, How Collective Settlements Camouflage The Costs Of Shareholder Lawsuits, Christopher C. French
Journal Articles
In his recent article, Professor Richard Squire offers a provocative theory in which he claims the underlying claimants in shareholder litigation against corporate policyholders are overcompensated due to what he describes as “cramdown” settlements, under which insurers are forced to settle due to the “duty to contribute” that arises under multi-layered directors and officers (“D&O”) insurance programs. He also offers a novel idea regarding how this problem could be fixed by what he refers to as “segmented” settlements in which each insurer and the policyholder would be allowed to settle separately and consider only its own interests in doing so. …
Just A Matter Of Time: The Second Circuit Renders Ancillary State Laws Inapplicable By Authorizing Arbitrators To Decide Whether A Statute Of Limitations Can Bar Arbitration, Daivy P. Dambreville
Just A Matter Of Time: The Second Circuit Renders Ancillary State Laws Inapplicable By Authorizing Arbitrators To Decide Whether A Statute Of Limitations Can Bar Arbitration, Daivy P. Dambreville
Daivy P Dambreville
The U.S. Supreme Court has long adhered to a federal policy favoring arbitration, and has consistently resolved ambiguities within arbitration clauses in favor of arbitration. In applying this principle, courts are guided by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) which provides the federal substantive law of arbitrability. The Court has now consistently interpreted the FAA’s main purpose as to guarantee that arbitration agreements are enforced according to their terms. Yet, in regard to procedural matters of arbitrability there is a presumption that these matters should be decided by the court, unless otherwise stated in the arbitration agreement. But where parties devise …
The “Ensuing Loss” Clause In Insurance Policies: The Forgotten And Misunderstood Antidote To Anti-Concurrent Causation Exclusions, Chris French
Journal Articles
As a result of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco which destroyed the city, a clause known as the “ensuing loss” clause was created to address concurrent causation situations in which a loss follows both a covered peril and an excluded peril. Ensuing loss clauses appear in the exclusions section of such policies and in essence they provide that coverage for a loss caused by an excluded peril is nonetheless covered if the loss “ensues” from a covered peril. Today, ensuing loss clauses are found in “all risk” property and homeowners policies, which cover all losses except for …
Debunking The Myth That Insurance Coverage Is Not Available Or Allowed For Intentional Torts Or Damages, Christopher French
Debunking The Myth That Insurance Coverage Is Not Available Or Allowed For Intentional Torts Or Damages, Christopher French
Journal Articles
Over the years, a myth has developed that insurance coverage is not available or allowed for intentional injuries or damage. This myth has two primary bases: one, the “fortuity” doctrine, which provides that insurance should only cover losses that happen by chance; and two, public policy, which allegedly disfavors allowing insurance for intentional injuries or damage. This article dispels that myth. Many types of liability insurance policies expressly cover intentional torts including trademark infringement, copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, defamation, disparagement, and improper employment practices such as discrimination. In addition, punitive damages, which typically are awarded for intentional misconduct, are …
Construction Defects: Are They “Occurrences”?, Chris French
Construction Defects: Are They “Occurrences”?, Chris French
Journal Articles
An issue in the area of insurance law that has been litigated frequently in recent years is whether construction defects are “occurrences” under Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) insurance policies. The courts have been divided in deciding the issue and in their approaches to analyzing the issue. This article addresses how the issue should be analyzed and concludes that construction defects are “occurrences”. The relevant rules of insurance policy interpretation dictate that construction defects are “occurrences”. Policy language should be interpreted in such a way as to fulfill the reasonable expectations of the policyholder when the policy is construed as a …
The “Non-Cumulation Clause”: An “Other Insurance” Clause By Another Name, Chris French
The “Non-Cumulation Clause”: An “Other Insurance” Clause By Another Name, Chris French
Journal Articles
How long-tail liability claims such as asbestos bodily injury claims and environmental property damage claims are allocated among multiple triggered policy years can result in the shifting of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars from one party to another. In recent years, insurers have argued that clauses commonly titled, “Prior Insurance and Non-Cumulation of Liability” (referred to herein as “Non-Cumulation Clauses”), which are found in commercial liability policies, should be applied to reduce or eliminate their coverage responsibilities for long-tail liability claims by shifting their coverage responsibilities to insurers that issued policies in earlier policy years. The insurers’ argument …
Exemptions Of Contract Liability Under The 1980 United Nations Convention, Wanki Lee
Exemptions Of Contract Liability Under The 1980 United Nations Convention, Wanki Lee
Penn State International Law Review
This article will primarily discuss the United Nations Sales Convention. In interpreting the Convention, the central problem is to what extent Article 79 of the Convention will apply to the various cases. Does it apply only to cases of "force majeure" or "impossibility," i.e., cases in which there is a barrier that prevents performance or makes it impracticable? Or does it apply to cases of "frustration" or "imprévision," i.e., cases in which there is no barrier but the circumstances are radically changed because of a contingency contrary to the basic assumption on which the contract was made? Even if Article …
Contract Formation Under The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods And The Uniform Commercial Code, James Edward Joseph
Contract Formation Under The United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods And The Uniform Commercial Code, James Edward Joseph
Penn State International Law Review
The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods aspires to the role of a transcendent uniform law. In order to lend uniformity to international sales law, the Convention must reduce the necessity of resorting to domestic conflict rules to determine applicable law, and it must reduce forum shopping. The second section of this Comment is a brief history of the effort to unify international sales law. The third section is concerned with uniformity. The applicability of the Convention with regard to both forum shopping and reliance on domestic conflict rules will be discussed. Ratification procedures are …