Our Insurance Practice Group at Higgins, Cavanagh & Cooney has been representing the insurance industry since the day we were formed. We continue to be involved passionately in all aspects of insurance litigation which includes insurance coverage and bad faith.
Our insurance company clients are among the most sophisticated purchasers of legal services in the world. Their continued allegiance underscores our breadth of practice, our attentiveness to their needs and our ability to deliver exceptional value. In the process, we have compiled an impressive and well-recognized record of success in the trial and appellate courts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, helping to establish new law for the benefit of the entire industry. Our attorneys handle a wide array of coverage matters ranging from the routine to the extraordinary involving:
– Environmental coverage claims.
– Duty to defend.
– Bad faith.
– Uninsured motorist.
– Policy conditions.
– Automobile accidents.
– Slip and fall accidents.
- Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith
Recent representative cases:
– Defending a leading national provider of property and casualty insurance against assertions that the two-year limitations provision specified in an insurance policy did not apply to the contract’s appraisal clause. The case was dismissed on summary judgment, and the dismissal affirmed on appeal by the Rhode Island Supreme Court which held that arbitration of damages payable under the policy was time barred by the plain language of the contract.
– Representing the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer in an action for declaratory judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island which granted summary judgment on the ground that the insurer had “no duty to defend and indemnify” a civil action filed against the policyholder pursuant to a homeowner’s insurance contract.
– Defending a leading regional insurance carrier against assertions that the “advertising injury” clause in a contract of insurance covered claims arising from trademark infringement, unfair competition, and unfair trade practices. The case was dismissed on summary judgment by the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
– Representing the nation’s largest publicly-held personal lines insurer in an action for declaratory judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to limit liability under a package policy for claims asserted by former tenants against the policyholder. The court ruled for the insurer and held that exposure to lead-paint poisoning constituted a “single occurrence” as defined in the policy.
– Defending a leading national provider of property and casualty insurance in an action for declaratory judgment to provide coverage for the defense and indemnity of a civil action filed in federal court in New York against the corporate policyholder. The case, brought by a large jewelry manufacturer, was dismissed on summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and affirmed by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on the ground that the action in New York did not set forth a claim that would be covered by the policy.
Representing a leading regional insurance carrier against assertions that a pedestrian, who was struck and killed by an uninsured motorist, was entitled to coverage under a commercial automobile insurance policy. The corporation in which he was the sole shareholder and employee had obtained the policy. This complicated case was dismissed on summary judgment, and the dismissal affirmed on appeal by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
