Barry Papazian

The plaintiff's poultry processing plant was destroyed by fire and was significantly underinsured because the original insurance application understated the building's size.

The plaintiff sued her insurance broker and the insurer.

The insurer brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the claims against it, arguing it owed no duty of care to inform the insured or the broker of the size discrepancy it discovered during a subsequent property inspection.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that conflicting evidence regarding the purpose of the inspection and the parties' reliance required a full trial to determine whether a novel duty of care existed under the Anns/Cooper framework.

Following a serious motor vehicle accident involving a leased tractor trailer, the insured plaintiffs sought a determination that their insurer's umbrella policy did not respond and summary judgment against their insurance broker and broker employee for failing to secure excess coverage.

The court held that the leased vehicle was excluded from the non-owned automobile coverage by the long-term lease exclusion and that the umbrella coverage did not apply because the lessor's primary policy was not listed in the schedule of underlying insurance.

The court excluded the broker's expert report as unnecessary for policy interpretation, applied the summary judgment framework, and found no genuine issue requiring a trial.

The broker defendants were found to have breached their duty of care by failing to identify and address the coverage gap, and contributory negligence was rejected.

Summary judgment was granted against the broker defendants.