Insurance Law Commons^™

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Barriers To Insurance Innovation, Peter Molk

UF Law Faculty Publications

In exchange for a payment, insurance companies assume risks from policyholders. Because of their ability to aggregate and diversify many risks, insurers can offer this service at a price that is attractive to policyholders. Yet there are risks that insurers refuse to cover, even though the insurer appears to be in at least as favorable a risk-bearing position as is the policyholder. Property insurance contracts, for example, place on policyholders the risk that rebuilding costs will be greater than expected, or that a home will be destroyed by flood or nuclear damage, or that exposure to natural hazards will change …

The Unethical Practices Of Force-Placed Insurance: How To Protect And Indemnify The Forgotten Investors Of Mortgage-Backed Securities, Devin Moore

St. Thomas Law Review

In the United States, the media has been attempting to inform homeowners of an abusive insurance policy: force-placed insurance. Force-placed insurance is a type of policy that only protects the interest of the mortgage lender or mortgage servicer, and not the homeowner. While federal and state governments have restricted force-placed insurance policies for homeowners, the laws do not protect investors of mortgage-backed securities with force-placed insurance policies. These investors have an extensive impact on the general population since their investments are funded by retirement savings plans. As a result, the investors could lose the retirement savings of millions without proper …

Tied Together With Covenants: Tying Provisions As The Anti-Hero To Fdic Insurance Limits, Kelly W. Cline

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Designing A Victims’ Compensation System Amidst California’S Insurance Crisis: The Aftermath Of The 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires, Federica Simonelli

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Commentary will explore critical aspects necessary for creating victims’ compensation mechanisms capable of handling claims stemming from the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires from a theoretical perspective. Drawing from the successful examples of the 2020 PG&E Fire Victim Trust, the 2023 Maui Wildfires compensation schemes, and other forms of dispute resolution (such as mediation), this Commentary will demonstrate that the challenging fallouts of environmental disasters pose increased challenges and necessitate unique dispute system design to better respond to the need for fair and equitable solutions. These systems increasingly rely on settlement funds tailored to claimants’ specific needs and have proven …

Delay, Deny, Tax, Samuel D. Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Health insurance companies are having a moment in the United States. Their moment involves widespread public objections to their seemingly random and increasing willingness to deny coverage and reimbursement to insureds. These denials are in large part not part of a program to improve health coverage but, rather, to reduce insurance companies’ expenses and, in turn, increase their profits.

There is broad consensus that something has to change. The public demands it. Bipartisan groups of senators and representatives have investigated it. Even the health care industry acknowledges that something needs to change. To actually make the health care system better …

The Rise Of China: Economic Expansion, Military Modification And The Belt And Road Initiative, Felix Padilla

Dissertations and Theses

In order to analyze China’s rise in power, we have to examine how China has achieved this growth. We need to observe their domestic reforms, international initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and strategic military advancements. This thesis focuses on China’s economic integration, market reforms and military modernization. The thesis uncovers the effects of this rise on global governance and power balances, especially in trade, security, and geopolitics. I analyze China's vision of a multipolar world and how it contrasts with the current global order and how this fuels rivalry with the U.S. and other powers. China's rise …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Consumer Claims For Insurance Company Drone Surveillance, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Many people do not own their homes outright-they finance the purchase of their home by taking out a mortgage against it. This typically means that the homeowner is contractually obligated to do a number of things-like pay real property taxes, keep the property in good condition, and keep it insured, even as prices skyrocket. But even worse, the pool of providers is materially shrinking with some insurers now either not writing or limiting new policies or tightening underwriting standards in some markets. Insurance companies pull out of markets because they cannot make enough money in those markets to be profitable. …

The United States Healthcare System: From Medicare To Post-Pandemic Health Policy, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

My purpose in this essay is to comment on national health policy in the United States over the past sixty years.  My conclusions are less optimistic than what I had hoped when I began my teaching and research career in the 1990s to be able to say in 2025.  In particular, the successful expansion of publicly supported health coverage via the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Obamacare”) in 2010 seems to have triggered -- though I hesitate to say that it caused – a backsliding from broader commitments to clinical performance, population health, and social solidarity that …

The Illusory Coverage Doctrine Is Not A Doctrine At All (But It Should Be), Shannon W. Conway

Catholic University Law Review

The Illusory Coverage Doctrine, if it ever becomes a true legal doctrine, has the potential to be an incredibly useful tool in insurance law. But courts around the country take very different approaches to the doctrine, ranging from one end of the spectrum—a hard-nosed “pro-insurer” stance where coverage is not illusory so long as a policy provides any coverage—to the other—a muscular “pro-policyholder” public policy approach that requires coverage even if some other exclusion might have prevented coverage under the applicable policy. And along the spectrum are various other iterations, contributing to the complete lack of certainty or consistency about …

Baybutt Construction Corp. V. Commercial Union Insurance Co.: A Question Of Ambiguity In Comprehensive General Liability Insurance Policies, Peter Alexander Meyer

Maine Law Review

A critical issue pervading the realm of commercial insurance contract law concerns the clarity of provisions contained in policy agreements. Insurance policies containing unclear or complicated language may give rise to situations in which the actual intentions of the contracting parties are not reflected in the technical terms of the policy. The parties' conflicting expectations often lead to costly litigation. In such cases, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, has made it clear that it will ordinarily rule against the party who wrote the policy (the insurer) and in favor of the party whose expectations were …

Stacked Recovery Under Maine's Uninsured Motorists Statute: Connolly V. Royal Globe Insurance Company, Edward R. Benjamin Jr.

Maine Law Review

Foremost among the problems of automobile travel facing state legislatures may be that of ensuring adequate compensation for injuries and deaths suffered in traffic accidents. Frequently an injured party wins an award of damages against a negligent motorist, only to find the negligent party unable to meet the financial burden which the judgment imposes. The injured party, though innocent of any wrongdoing, may receive little or no compensation for injuries suffered. State legislatures have attempted to prevent such situations by enacting mandatory liability insurance laws, creating victim compensation funds, or requiring uninsured motorist coverage. Inherent weaknesses exist, however, in both …

American Home Assurance Co. V. Ingeneri: Misrepresentations In Insurance Applications, Richard P. Bennett

Maine Law Review

In American Home Assurance Co. v. Ingeneri, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, addressed the issue of when an incorrect response to a question on an insurance application constitutes a sufficient misrepresentation to render the policy voidable under Maine law. Reversing the trial court, the Law Court held that to render the policy voidable, the applicable statutory provision required the insurer to prove that the insured's misrepresentation was fraudulent, material to the insured risk, and actually relied upon by the insurer. The Law Court determined that the word "or" in the misrepresentation statute should be read …

Improved Regulation Of Maine Physicians: One Solution To The Medical Malpractice Crisis, Joanne Buttolph Steneck

Maine Law Review

Maine began regulating allopathic and osteopathic physicians around the turn of the century with the passage of two statutes, in 1895 and 1919, commonly referred to as the Medical Practice Acts. As originally enacted, these statutes provided for the establishment of boards, composed of physicians, and empowered the boards to examine and license all persons seeking to practice as physicians and surgeons within the state. The boards were also responsible for investigating complaints of noncompliance with, or violations of, the Acts' provisions, and for revoking licenses for such violations. The boards were left to undertake these licensing and review functions …