Federal and state courts continue to weigh litigation involving public nuisance, long-tail environmental and sexual abuse claims, headlined by a coverage dispute related to multidistrict litigation against Meta Platforms Inc., IBM's bid for coverage of environmental remediation claims and Chubb's argument against sexual abuse claims the Archdiocese of New York faces.

Here, Law360 breaks down some of the blockbuster commercial general liability insurance cases to follow going into the second half of the year.

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Policyholder attorney Diana Shafter Gliedman of Anderson Kill PC added that moving the coverage dispute back to Delaware adds another challenge for the policyholder.

"It's so difficult for policyholders, even big corporate policyholders, to have to essentially fight a war on two fronts," she said, pointing to the ongoing MDL.

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Cameron R. Argetsinger, a policyholder attorney from Anderson Kill PC, told Law360 that the "non-cumulation" language under New York case law allows a policyholder to follow an "all-sums" approach where it can essentially point to any insurer that was on the risk at any point in time, point to a specific policy year and exhaust it before moving on to the next policy when dealing with cases involving long-tail environmental injury.

"That's critical in this case to IBM's ability to choose which policies they want to target for coverage," Argetsinger said, "That is an important factor because in many of the years at issue here certain of the policies are insolvent or they're exhausted. And so this would allow IBM to target years that have the most favorable coverage."

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Argetsinger told Law360 Chubb's argument that the alleged abuse was expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured, and thus not covered, is another big issue.

Chubb wanting to pursue that defense for many cases that the archdiocese already settled or is looking to settle soon raises concern for him based on the standard of coverage for a settlement, which is much lower than the standard for coverage for an actual judgment, Argetsinger said.

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Anderson Kill's Gliedman said the insurer's "abrupt turnaround" on its coverage stance was surprising, along with Liberty Mutual's reliance on a criminal misconduct exclusion.

The hotel chain argued that the criminal conduct being alleged was not committed by Red Roof Inn, rather by other people allegedly on their property, Gliedman said. She told Law360 felt Liberty Mutual's argument to be an overreach.

"Companies purchase insurance to protect them when they are sued and when they are facing these tough and difficult allegations, and I don't believe that any of these policyholders assumed, 'If I'm forced to defend myself in a litigation, and we have to protect ourselves and our reputation, that we will simultaneously have to fight with our insurance companies as well.'"

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