A pair of insurer wins in corporate-friendly Delaware and a favorable ruling on the so-called bump-up exclusion have carriers feeling good about the past year ofdirectors and officers disputes, although Verizon obtaining coverage for a $95 million fraudulent transfer settlement gave policyholders something to cheer about.
Here, Law360 breaks down the most significant D&O decisions and trends of 2022.
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"It's worrisome because the insurance industry is clearly going to use it to try and expand the bump-upexclusion beyond its intent and its plain language, Raymond Mascia Jr., a shareholder in Anderson Kill's insurance recovery practice, said of the Ceradyne decision.
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"That exclusion does not apply to a claim against the seller," Mascia said. "It can't, because the seller doesn't pay for its own acquisition."
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Mascia of Anderson Kill noted that Travelers was a fifth-layer excess insurer in Jeld-Wen's coverage tower that ran between 2019 and 2020, and the four underlying carriers all agreed to cover the company.
"The fact that multiple insurance companies in the same tower with the same policy terms could take entirely divergent positions shows that these related claims provisions are inherently ambiguous," Mascia said. "And it is black letter insurance coverage law that when a provision is ambiguous, it should be read in favor of the policyholder."
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