Announcing our senior partner Mark Boyle at National Business Institute (NBI, Inc) presenting his course, “Florida Construction Law: Advanced Issues and Answers”, Tuesday July 26th, 2022 Register today at https://www.nbi-sems.com/ProductDetails/Florida-Construction-Law-Advanced-Issues-and-Answers/OnDemand-Video/92538SVDM_3716917 Use Promo Code FSPN50 at checkout to get $50 off ..read more

Attorney Mark Boyle will be speaking at the 2021 Perrin Conferences’ National Construction Defect Conference on Nov. 10-12, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.   The following is a link to the conference website where you can register: https://www.perrinconferences.com/conferences/construction-defect-litigation-conference/.  The conference will be approved for CLE and CE credit ..read more

By, J. Andrew Yoho, Esq. In a widely anticipated opinion in the construction defect and insurance coverage world, the South Carolina Supreme Court recently reaffirmed its longstanding law on litigating coverage issues separately from liability and rebuffed the efforts of insurance carriers to invade the province of liability actions pending against their insureds. For several decades, it has been a bedrock of South Carolina law that liability actions, particularly in the construction defect context, are tried separately from any coverage dispute that arises therefrom.  In the landmark cas ..read more

Please join me at Perrin Conferences National Construction Litigation Conference that will be held virtually on November 12-13, 2020. This conference will focus on the status of construction defect litigation, construction technology, handling claims, analysis of PL and GL, ethical issues and other relevant topics from a variety of perspectives. I hope you can make it. Learn more here and download a copy of the agenda: https://www.perrinconferences.com/conferences/national-construction-defect-conference-2020 ..read more

By Alex L. Brockmeyer, Esq. and Justin M. Thomas, Esq. The onset of the recently declared pandemic, COVID-19, has injected great turmoil into everyday life and has disrupted business as usual for companies and organizations, without prejudice to size or net worth. The impact on businesses has been and will be devastating for many. One question raised is whether insurance covers any of the losses associated with COVID-19. The answer, as we are sure all readers will be thrilled to hear is: it depends. Like most questions concerning insurance coverage, the answer depends on the language in your i ..read more

By, Esther A. Zucarro, Esq. Berkley Assurance Co. v. Expert Grp. Int’l Inc., 779 F. App’x 604 (11th Cir. 2019) addressed an insurance coverage dispute as to whether insurer Berkley Assurance Company (“Berkley”) owed a duty to defend and/or indemnify its insured, Expert Group International, Inc., doing business as “Expert Au Pair” in light of the subject policy’s prior knowledge exclusion. Berkley sought a declaratory judgment that it had no duty to defend or indemnify Expert Au Pair for a former client’s claims. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, affirming the United ..read more

By, Justin M. Thomas, Esq. and Molly Chafe Brockmeyer, Esq. The onset of the recently declared pandemic, COVID-19, has injected great turmoil into everyday life and has disrupted business as usual for companies and organizations, without prejudice to size or net worth. The impact on businesses has been and will be devastating for many. One question raised is whether insurance covers any of the losses associated with COVID-19. Traditionally, coverage for “business interruption” or “business income” losses are a component of coverage under a commercial property policy as a defined coverage in th ..read more

By, Laura F. Locklair, Esq. Believers in additional insured indemnity have a new soap box to stand on following the issuance of the court’s opinion in Portrait Homes – South Carolina, LLC and Portrait Homes – Persimmon Hill, LLC v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company and the Persimmon Hill Homeowners Association, Inc., C.A. 2014-CP-08-2757 (Berkeley County Circuit Court, October 22, 2019). For too long carriers in South Carolina and elsewhere have, at best, ignored the idea of separate indemnity obligation owed by an insurer to an additional insured and, at worst, outright ..read more

By, Amanda K. Anderson, Esq. Recently, in December 2019, the Middle District of Florida solidified an insurer’s defense obligations to an additional insured in two opinions arising from the same case – KB Home Jacksonville LLC v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., No. 3:18-CV-371-J-34MCR, 2019 WL 4247269, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 5, 2019) and 2019 WL 4228602, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 5, 2019). KB Home Jacksonville, LLC (“KB Home”) filed suit against Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company (“Liberty) and Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company (“Ironshore”) seeking declarations that both insurers had a duty t ..read more

Insurers often rely on deductible and/or self-insured retention (“SIR”) endorsements to shift the burden to pay for a portion of the defense to the insured. However, absent specific policy language, such endorsements do not operate to excuse or delay an insurer’s duty to defend. Moreover, although the terms are often used interchangeably, important distinctions exist between deductibles and SIRs that impact when an insurer is obligated to defend. “A deductible or self-insured retention states the monetary threshold of the insurer’s obligation to pay liabilities covered by the policy.” Insuranc ..read more