A recent Mississippi case reminds commercial and residential policyholders alike of the importance of updating insurance coverage when circumstances change to avoid a coverage dispute or the loss of coverage altogether. Commercial insureds should coordinate with stakeholders within their organizations to ensure prompt reporting of changing exposures to the personnel responsible for insuring risks. The
Confirming the growing split of decisions among federal courts addressing COVID-19 insurance issues, two district courts in the Fifth Circuit differed in their interpretation of virus exclusions, with one denying coverage and the other permitting the policyholder’s claim to proceed.
On November 4, a Mississippi federal district court dismissed a restaurant’s complaint for business interruption
In a sweeping decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit extended the absolute pollution exclusion to the unplanned discharge of “rock fines,” pellets produced during quarry operations, and denied coverage for the cost of removing the rock fines and defending a state law claim against the insured.
The insured, Eastern Concrete Materials,