The Northwest Policyholder
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Interpreting Insurance Exclusions for Flood and Surface Water Damage Caused by Human Activity in Oregon
Stormwater overflows and similar accidents are a frequent source of damage in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest generally. Insurers often deny coverage for resulting damage under the "surface and flood" waters exclusion. A recent case out of the U.S....
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SB 728: A Commonsense Adjustment to Oregon Insurance Law
Once again Oregon legislatures are looking at removing the exemption of insurance companies from the Oregon Unfair Trade Practices Act. SB 728 makes violations of Oregon’s Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act (the “UCSPA”) an unlawful trade practic...
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Insurance Policy Interpretation in Oregon—Lessons From New Cases
Insurance policies are famously obscure, full of non-sequiturs and jargon. Coverage disputes often feature disagreements about the meaning of policy wording. As a result, courts have developed a process for interpreting policies. In Oregon, the int...
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Insurance Coverage & the Cannabis Industry
Properly insuring cannabis businesses, and companies that are involved in the industry but that are not themselves regulated under state cannabis law, can be a tricky undertaking. I recently wrote an article for the Oregon State Bar Cannabis Law Se...
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Oregon Court: “Sudden & Accidental” Exception to Pollution Exclusion Judged from Policyholder's Perspective
One of the most critical issues in litigation over coverage for long-tail environmental liabilities is the application of the "qualified pollution exclusion" and in particular the carve-out for pollution that is "sudden and accidental." A new decisio...
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Miller Nash Graham & Dunn Represents United Policyholders on Pollution Exclusion in Ninth Circuit
We are honored to represent United Policyholders (a non-profit advocacy organization for policyholders) on an issue of great concern to many of our commercial clients, and in particular those in the construction industry: the scope of the so-called "...
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