Eleventh Circuit Rules In Favor of International Insurer

FHAM represented Alea London Limited, a United Kingdom based insurer, in its recent appellate victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. This appeal involved the extent of an insured’s obligation to provide timely notice of a potential claim, when the insurer’s address was not listed in the policy.

Alea’s insured contacted his insurance broker to report a claim, after he witnessed a contractor fall off of a multi-story extension ladder. The contractor was in a coma for several months, but the insured’s broker never reported the claim to Alea.

Twenty-three months later, after the insured was served with a lawsuit, the claim was first submitted to Alea for a defense and indemnity up to Alea’s significant policy limits. Alea provided a defense, subject to a reservation of rights, and immediately filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to determine its rights and obligations under the policy. Although the insured asserted that the policy had been issued without any contact information for Alea, the District Court granted Alea’s Motion for Summary Judgment finding that the absence of contact information did not transform the broker into Alea’s agent for notice of a potential claim and that the delay in providing notice was unexcused as a matter of law.

The insured appealed to the Eleventh Circuit arguing that the absence of specific contact information waived Alea’s right to contest the sufficiency of the notice. In a Per Curiam decision, the Eleventh Circuit rejected the waiver argument and affirmed the judgment in favor of Alea.