N C Supreme Court Restores Common Sense to “Resident of Household” Interpretation

Many insurance policies extend coverage to a relative of the insured if the relative is a resident of the insured’s household. Whether a person is a resident of the insured’s household has been the subject of many lawsuits and appellate court decisions. The North Carolina Court of Appeals, in 2014, held that a 16-year-old girl (Harley) was a resident of her grandfather’s (Thurman) household despi...
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Reservation of Rights letter found insufficient by South Carolina Supreme Court

The South Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision on 7/26/2017 which provides some good information regarding the purposes and requirements of reservation of rights (ROR) letters. The Court held in Harleysville Group Insurance Corporation v. Heritage Communities, Inc., 420 S.C. 321, 803 S.E.2d 288 (2017), that an insurer’s ROR letter in a construction defect case was insufficient to reserve its ...
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DUTY TO DEFEND TRIGGERED BY EXTRINSIC EVIDENCE

A U.S. District Court decision issued 11/25/2020 is a good illustration of the rule that if a Complaint implicates the possibility of coverage, the insurer’s duty to defend cannot be eliminated by extrinsic evidence that demonstrates no coverage, and if it is determined that the insurer’s refusal to defend was unjustified, it will be obligated to pay the underlying judgment. In Craige v. Gov’t Em...
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