NFL Insurers Seek to Avoid Reimbursing the NFL for Concussion Settlement Due to Missing Discovery

Insurers for the National Football League (NFL) petitioned a New York state court judge on June 14, 2019, demanding “underlying documents” from the NFL’s litigation and settlement in the class-action lawsuit involving over 1,000 former professional football players and their families regarding concussions and chronic brain trauma. The insurers are seeking to escape reimbursing the NFL, which could prompt further litigation. In oral arguments, a coalition of 28 insurers claimed that the NFL did not produce adequate discovery during litigation after its concussion settlement …
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Football Insurance? You Bet

This post first appeared on Goldberg Segalla’s Professional Liability Matters blog.  Professional athletes are worth a lot of money. When they are on top of their game they are capable of raking in the dough for themselves and their organizations.  However, if they become injured or otherwise unable to perform a lot of money is at stake.  Therefore, it’s not unusual for athletes to obtain disability insurance policies, covering them in the event of a career ending injury.  In fact with respect to collegiate athletes,…
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New Insurance Covers Celeb-Endorsed Products from Endorser’s Public Fall from Grace

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) announced a new insurance product called Celebrity Product RecallResponse.  According to the company, it is designed to protect companies exposed to risks if a celebrity endorser suffers a public fall from grace or sudden death.  It aims to particularly help companies that manufacture and sell products bearing a celebrity’s name or image. The insurance is triggered by extensive media coverage of an endorser when the endorser allegedly or actually commits a criminal act or other offenses that results in…
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Rolling Stones in Legal Battle Against Insurance Underwriters over $12.7M

The Rolling Stones are taking a group of insurance underwriters to court over an insurance claim that was denied.  Before their 2014 tour of Asia and Australia, the Rolling Stones took out a $23.9 million insurance policy to cover cancellations resulting from the death of family members and others named in the policy. The insurance policy was triggered when the group cancelled the Australia and New Zealand concert dates because Mick Jagger’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott committed suicide in her New York apartment on March 17. …
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Insurers Seek to Re-Open Arbitration Claim against Armstrong

On February 21, attorneys for the now disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong found themselves back in court.  The embattled athlete’s legal team is attempting to fight a motion to re-open a 2006 arbitration decision which forced the Dallas-based sports insurance company SCA Promotions to pay Armstrong $12 million dollars in performance bonuses.  As Armstrong has since come out and publicly admitted to doping, SCA believes that it should receive reimbursement for the monies it paid to Armstrong for winning three of Armstrong’s seven Tour de France…
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Keeping Up With the Counterclaims: Tria Beauty, Inc. and Kim Kardashian Are Denied Insurance Coverage

On May 21, 2013, a California Federal Judge denied insurance coverage to Tria Beauty, Inc. in a case involving false advertising allegations against rival Radiancy, Inc.  In response, Radiancy, Inc. raised several counterclaims against Tria Beauty. What made the case especially noteworthy is the involvement of Tria Beauty’s leading spokeswoman, the wildly famous and always controversial Kim Kardashian. The coverage claim providers, National Fire Insurance Co. of Hartford, and Travelers Property Casualty Co. of America, denied coverage to Tria Beauty, Inc. The coverage dispute was…
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NCAA Program Allows “Exceptional” Athletes to Hedge Against Loss of Future Earning Potential

“Prediction is Very Difficult, Especially about the Future” – Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr may not have had sports in mind when he said this but, yes, predicting the future is hard and that is exactly what makes sports so exciting. Whether it’s the big, unexpected play with only seconds left on the clock or a Cinderella story at a National Championship – unpredictability is why we watch the game. Despite the difficulty, we like to predict the future of star athletes. One big question…
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GUEST ANALYSIS: Cleveland Indians Sent to Dugout – Appeal to 6th Circuit to Stay in the Game

What was supposed to be a fun-filled day at the Cleveland Indians ballpark turned tragic.  An inflatable slide set up just outside the ballpark as part of a promotional event, collapsed killing one visitor and hurting another.  A subsequent investigation found that the slide had not been properly installed. The families of the deceased and injured visitors filed suit.  This particular case deals who’s going to pay. Let’s rewind back to the beginning of the 2010 baseball season.  The Indians had hired National Pastime Sports…
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NFL Attempts to Keep Insurance Coverage Dispute in California

The National Football League recently filed a motion to dismiss a  lawsuit filed by Alterra America Insurance Co. in New York State Supreme Court, arguing that the excess insurer did not have the requisite standing to add additional insurers as parties to its New York action, since the NFL is already pursing an action against them inCalifornia. The current dispute arose out of the massive insurance coverage obligations dispute between the NFL, NFL Properties LLC, and a host of primary and additional insurers, which began…
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