North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Where a subcontractor’s faulty excavation work on a building construction project caused a delay in the project and required the subcontractor to perform significant remediation work, the resulting damages incurred by the site owner and general contractor were not covered ...
Read More »Insurance Damages from subcontractor’s faulty work not covered by policy
Insurance – Auto – UIM – Per Accident/Per Person Limit 
In this case (1) four people were injured in a motor vehicle accident; (2) the tortfeasor’s insurance carrier, Integon Insurance, paid the victims a total of $100,000 pursuant to the per-accident limit on its liability coverage; (3) defendant Dana received ...
Read More »Insurance ‘Prior publication’ exclusion does not excuse duty to defend
Where the pleadings in the underlying suit alleged offensive publications were made during the policy period that differed in substance from those published before commencement of coverage, the “prior publication” exclusion did not obviate insurer’s duty to defend. Background In ...
Read More »Insurance Employer as joint insurance plan administrator had fiduciary duty
An employer who allegedly told a beneficiary it would pay death benefits, after the life insurance carrier denied the claim, has been sued by the beneficiary who alleges she relied on the promises to her detriment. Background According to the ...
Read More »Insurance – Homeowners – Cancellation Notice – ‘Furnish’ – New Policy – First Impression
When cancelling a new homeowners’ insurance policy – a cancellation that can be done for any reason within 60 days of the policy’s issuance – an insurer must “furnish” notice to the homeowners. Construing this term for the first ...
Read More »Insurance – Auto – Reinsurance Facility – Extracontractual Losses – Right to Consideration
Pursuant to paragraph C.2 of § 5 of the North Carolina Reinsurance Facility’s Standard Practice Manual, the respondent-insurance company had the right to have its request for reimbursement of extracontractual losses considered, but the insurance company did not have the ...
Read More »Insurance – Auto Insurance – Medical Payments Coverage – Assignment of Benefits – Validity
Plaintiffs’ claims against their treating hospital and auto insurer dismissed where plaintiffs validly assigned their medical coverage payment benefits as a form of “health insurance” as part of their hospital admission forms. We grant defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure ...
Read More »Insurance – Carrier’s denial of benefits affirmed
The district court correctly granted summary judgment to an insurance carrier on the plaintiff’s ERISA claim because its denial of benefits was reasonable under the deferential abuse of discretion standard. Background On April 15, 2013, Mark Grabowski flew from New ...
Tagged with: Benefits
Read More »Insurance – Auto – Civil Practice – Declaratory Judgment Action – Necessary Parties – Car Sale – Conditional Delivery
The defendant-estate’s decedent tried to buy a car from the defendant-dealership on a Saturday and took conditional delivery of the car under G.S. § 20-75.1 pending credit approval; that same day, the decedent was involved in an accident that took ...
Tagged with: Auto
Read More »Insurance – Municipal – Police Department – Wrongful Acts – Same Defendant
Even though the same rape case was the backdrop for the Hickory Police Department’s wrongful acts in 1987-1988 and again from 2003 to 2011, the acts were separate: the earlier wrongful acts involved withholding exculpatory evidence from the district attorney ...
Tagged with: Municipal
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