Parks Chastain

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Tennessee has a statute, T.C.A. § 56-7-130, concerning insurance company requirements with respect to providing sink hole coverage and handling sink hole claims.   The statute was recently amended, and prior to July 1, 2014, was the subject of much litigation.  At issue was whether the statute requiring insurance carriers to “make available” sink hole coverage …

On April 6, 2015, the Tennessee Court of Appeals (Western Section), decided the case of Daniel v. Allstate, No. W2014-01965-COA-R3-CV (download copy here).  In this case, the trial court had granted summary judgment to an insurer based upon the one-year contractual limitations period under the policy.  Factually, the subject property was damaged by fire…

Tennessee “bad faith” law has long held that the statutory “bad faith penalty” set forth in T.C.A. 56-7-105 is not appropriate when the insurer’s refusal to pay rests upon legitimate and substantial legal grounds or when the payment demand is greater than the judgment ultimately recovered.  Tyber v. Great Central Ins. Co., 572 F.2d …

As many are aware, the Tennessee Legislature recently amended T.C.A. § 56-7-130, the statute requiring insurance carriers offering homeowner’s insurance in the state to “make available” sinkhole coverage to their insureds. The original statute was enacted in 2006, and its verbiage has created a few issues now going through the court systems. I wanted to comment further…

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (federal court system) has ruled that an insurance carrier need not provide an insured with any of its investigation prior to the taking of an examination under oath.  Many times, the insureds or their counsel, will request certain documentation from the file before the examination under oath is …

Long title, I know, but hopefully it sparked your interest, or perhaps dredged up painful memories of drawing those sentence diagram structures on wide ruled paper, wondering if you would ever use that skill in “real life.”  Well, see how you think it worked in the case of Artist Building Partners v. Auto-Owners Mutual Insurance …

One of my partners won a Court of Appeals decision earlier this week wherein the court construed an earth movement exclusion in a factual scenario not previously presented. The case is Hearn v. Erie Insurance Exchange, No. M2012-00698-COA-R3-CV. Download a copy here. 

   

The language at issue in the policy provided that the company …

Far from being “ho hum” as my colleague writes, the case of U. S. Bank, N.A. as servicer for the Tennessee Housing Development Agency v. Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, No. W2012-00053-COA-R3-CV, filed November 29, 2012, the did establish some important points of law – but from the insurer’s perspective, in limiting bad…

In response to a couple of cases rendered earlier this year, the Tennessee legislature has adopted Senate Bill 2271, which has two important impacts. The statute was signed into law by Governor Haslam on May 10, 2012. For a PDF copy, click here. 

The new law provides that the signature of an applicant for or party …