Confronted with a bevy of wildfire and flood claims, public and private utilities frequently contend that the instrumentality responsible for causing damage does not constitute a “public use” required for an inverse condemnation claim. The California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, in the City of Pasadena v Superior Court recently addressed whether a tree...

The co-author of the following post, Robert Sottile, is an Articling Student with Cozen O’Connor. The Court of Appeal has recently published a new decision regarding covenants to insure in Ontario. In Sanofi Pasteur Limited v. UPS SCS, Inc., 2015 ONCA 88, the plaintiff, Sanofi, contracted with the Defendant, UPS SCS Inc. (“UPS”), to store...

In deciding an issue of first impression, an Illinois appellate court expanded in early May the application of the implied warranty of habitability. “Implied warranty of habitability” is a group of words that fails to roll smoothly off the tongue and that may send some readers running for the hills knowing that the words that...

The Chinese Insurance Law provides that subrogation rights are not available to the insurer of an insurance policy concerning life or bodily injury, if the insurer has paid the insured or the beneficiary for death, bodily injury or illness suffered by the insured due to a third party’s action. The rationale behind such rule is...

For their senior research project, two young engineering students at George Mason University came across an experiment conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (“DARPA”) in 2012 called “acoustic suppression of flame.” In a nutshell, the experiment focused on whether sound waves could disrupt flames. The research was ultimately abandoned after the agency was...

  On February 27, 2015, District Judge Joanna Seybert of the Eastern District of New York issued a significant and informative Decision on the issue of striking a defendant’s affirmative defenses in Allstate Ins. Co. v. Long Island Power Authority, 14-CV-0444, NYLJ 1202719533249 (E.D.N.Y., Decided February 27, 2015). The decision discusses the legal standard for...

The Illinois supreme court case Dix Mut. Ins. Co. v. LaFramboise is often used to argue against landlord-tenant subrogation claims in Illinois. Under Dix, tenants are considered co-insureds under a landlord’s property insurance policy by virtue of making rent payments unless the lease clearly says otherwise. Because an insurer can’t pursue subrogation from an insured,...

Establishing the cause of a fire through the process of elimination has been a hot topic in recent years, both among subrogation professionals as well as inside the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).  In 2011, NFPA explicitly rejected negative corpus as a reliable methodology in fire investigation.  Specifically, NFPA 921-18.6.5 (2011) provided: Inappropriate Use of...

Smartphones and tablets have radically transformed the practice of law in recent years. People are using their mobile devices more frequently today for both business and their personal lives than ever before. However, for many litigators, mobile device discovery remains an unexplored frontier. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets has changed the face of a...

So far the Winter of 2014-15 has spared much of the country from the misery of last winter, but we still have a way to go. As we have just passed the halfway point of the four month season, it’s a good time to look at collecting weather data for subrogation claims where weather may...