Verdicts & Settlements

Green v. Royal Indemnity Co., 1994 U.S. Dist. Lexis 7948 (S.D.N.Y. 1994). We were able to obtain a judgment for the family of a man killed when the wheels of a tractor trailer broke loose and struck the van driven by the decedent. The insurance company disclaimed coverage, but because the tractor trailer had a federal endorsement, we were able to collect against the insurance company.

We represented a family of a deceased physician when the life insurance company refused to pay the family’s claim, alleging that failure to pay the premium had caused the doctor’s life insurance policy to lapse. We were able to defeat the insurance company’s position by establishing that the company had failed to properly send out the premium notice. We won at trial; and the jury trial was affirmed by the appellate court.

We succeeded in winning a claim for payment of life insurance proceeds where the insurance company alleged misrepresentations in the insured’s application. Our client prevailed in this matter and the insurance company properly paid on the life insurance policy.

A client who rented a car was injured while a passenger in the rented car. She had paid for all of the insurance available from the rental company, which then refused to pay her for her injuries because the driver of the car had not been authorized by the company to drive the car. The rental company had failed to purchase the insurance, however, and after trial and an appeal, we obtained a judgment which was paid by the rental company of over a million dollars.

An action on behalf of a wholesale jeweler against an insurance company that denied coverage when shipped diamonds were stolen by a person claiming to be an employee of the company the diamonds were shipped to. This matter was taken successfully to New York State’s highest appeals court.

When a driver was killed by the rear wheels of a truck breaking free and striking his vehicle, the truck’s insurance company claimed that it was not liable because the trailer was not owned by the trucking company at the time of the accident. We successfully defeated the claim and the deceased’s family was paid by the liability policy.

We represented a national beverage corporation against an insurance broker for failing to obtain the proper insurance. This case involved goods that were manufactured for our client. One of their “co-packers” stole the goods and resold the product as its own. The company had requested that their insurance policy cover this risk; and the broker had failed to obtain the coverage as requested. Our client prevailed in this matter and the broker’s Errors and Omissions policy paid the claim.

Life Insurance and Insurance Litigation Attorneys

New York and New Jersey

Insurance Litigation

  • Life Insurance Claim Denial
  • Failure to Pay or Underpayment of Claims
  • Errors and Omissions in Coverage
  • Coverage Disputes
  • For Additional Information, Please Also Visit Trief & Olk's Insurance Website

Insurance Litigation

Negligent, bad faith or fraudulent practices with respect to insurance policies, insurance coverage or insurance claims can take many forms.

We specialize in claims against insurance companies for failing to pay or underpaying in accordance with the provisions of their policies, and in claims against insurance brokers for making errors and omissions that damage policyholders’ abilities to collect under their existing policies. We represent beneficiaries under life insurance policies whom insurance companies have failed to pay based on the companies' claim that the decedent misrepresented some fact on the insurance application.

In order to properly evaluate and litigate an insurance matter, legal counsel needs to have a working knowledge of insurance principles, practices, and terminology, in addition to insurance law. They have to be able to read and understand every clause of an insurance policy. And it is critical that they be highly skilled in analyzing and understanding the Insurance Application, which is often at issue in insurance litigation.

Policies and applications are often written so that the fine print is barely decipherable, and so the language can be interpreted to benefit the insurance company, rather than the policyholder. Insurance Law often permits interpretations of these clauses that run contrary to common sense. Insurance Law often makes the insured and his or her family responsible for the misstatements by the broker who sold the insurance policy.

Trief & Olk has extensive insurance litigation experience. Some examples of our insurance litigation cases are:

LIFE INSURANCE LITIGATION

  • A widow and her two teenage children were denied payment of a one million dollar life insurance policy held by her husband, who died of stomach cancer, on the grounds that he made a material misrepresentation by failing to disclose a history of hepatitis B in the application.  Extensive discovery conducted by our firm in Massachusetts, California, and Canada was necessary to show that the hepatitis B did not pose a mortality risk, that the decedent did not make an intentional misrepresentation, and that the insurance company implemented unfair claims practices.  The case settled in mediation for a confidential but substantial sum.
  • We represented a family of a deceased physician when the life insurance company refused to pay the family’s claim, alleging that failure to pay the premium had caused the doctor’s life insurance policy to lapse. We were able to defeat the insurance company’s position by establishing that the company had failed to properly send out the premium notice. We won at trial; and the jury trial was affirmed by the appellate court.
  • In another life insurance case, we succeeded in winning a claim for payment of proceeds where the insurance company alleged misrepresentations in the insured’s application. Our client prevailed in this matter and the insurance company properly paid on the life insurance policy.

INSURANCE COVERAGE

  • A client who rented a car was injured while a passenger in the rented car. She had paid for all of the insurance available from the rental company, which then refused to pay her for her injuries because the driver of the car had not been authorized by the company to drive the car. The rental company had failed to purchase the insurance, however, and after trial and an appeal, we obtained a judgment which was paid by the rental company of over a million dollars.
  • An action on behalf of a wholesale jeweler against an insurance company that denied coverage when the shipped diamonds were stolen by a person claiming to be an employee of the company that was the intended recipient of the diamonds. This matter was taken successfully to New York State’s highest appeals court.
  • When a driver was killed by the rear wheels of a truck breaking free and striking his vehicle, the truck’s insurance company claimed that it was not liable because the trailer was not owned by the trucking company at the time of the accident. We successfully defeated the claim and the deceased’s family was paid by the liability policy.
  • We represented a national beverage corporation against an insurance broker for failing to obtain the proper insurance. This case involved goods that were manufactured for our client. One of their "co-packers" stole the goods and resold the product as its own. The company had requested that their insurance policy cover this risk, but the broker had failed to obtain the coverage as requested. Our client prevailed in this matter and the broker’s Errors and Omissions policy paid the claim.

If you have suffered losses from an insurance company’s failure to pay a claim or a broker’s failure to provide proper insurance, please call or e-mail our New York or New Jersey insurance fraud attorneys for more information or to discuss your case.

For more information about life insurance claim denial litigation, please click here.

Privacy Policy