Claims Journal

N.C. Judge First to Favor Policyholders in COVID-19 Closure Lawsuit

A judge in Durham County, North Carolina has handed down what may be the nation’s first dispositive ruling in favor of policyholders in a COVID-19 business-interruption lawsuit. Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. ruled on Oct. 7 that closure...

Posted: Oct 22, 2020

Large Earthquake Off Alaska Prompts Tsunami Fears, Fleeing

JUNEAU, Alaska — A magnitude 7.5 earthquake prompted a tsunami warning Monday for a nearly thousand-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast, with waves over 2 feet at the nearest community as the threat subsided. The quake was centered near Sand …

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

Suits Challenge Emissions by Georgia Sterilizing Company

ATLANTA — Homeowners in Georgia have filed a lawsuit over emissions of a chemical used by a company that sterilizes medical equipment. The Journal-Constitution reports that the attorney for the couple who filed the suit says it’s the first of …

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

6 Russian Officers Charged in ‘Destructive’ Hacking Campaign

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced charges against Russian intelligence officers in cyberattacks that targeted a French presidential election, the Winter Olympics in South Korea and American businesses. The case implicates the Kremlin unit...

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

Justices Review Priest Abuse Lawsuit’s Ruling on Time Limits

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday grappled with whether a woman’s lawsuit on claims of sexual abuse by a priest decades ago should be allowed to proceed — a lower-court ruling that has launched many other lawsuits since …

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

NTSB to Vote on Probable Cause of Fatal California Boat Fire

LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities are expected to vote Tuesday on what likely sparked a fire aboard a scuba dive boat last year that killed 34 people off the coast of Southern California. The pre-dawn blaze aboard the Conception is …

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

Federal Arrests Show Most Arrested in Protests Aren’t Organized Extremists

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump portrays the hundreds of people arrested nationwide in protests against racial injustice as violent urban left-wing radicals. But an Associated Press review of thousands of pages of court documents tell a different...

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

Mitchell Warns Insurers to Mind Surging Drug Use During Pandemic

Even though the number of opioid prescriptions in the United States had dropped by more than a third, the number of drug overdoes has surged this year, recent studies show. Mitchell, the San Diego-based claims administrator and pharmacy benefit manag...

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

PG&E Prioritized Targets Over Reducing Fire Risk, Monitor Says

PG&E Corp. prioritized meeting inspection targets over meaningful reduction of wildfire risk, according to a monitor overseeing the utility’s program of trimming trees and vegetation that pose a threat of igniting devastating blazes in California. Am...

Posted: Oct 21, 2020

Japan to Release Treated Fukushima Water in Sea, Kyodo Says

Japan is planning to release millions of gallons of treated radioactive water from its wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, Kyodo News reported, citing unidentified people close to the matter. The government has agre...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

More False Data Emerges From Firm That Took Over Takata

Joyson Safety Systems Japan, a unit of the company that took over failed airbag maker Takata Corp., discovered that falsified production data at its Japanese seatbelt factory was used to pass safety standards for a European certification agency, peop...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Offices Resort to Sensors in Futile Attempts to Keep Workers Apart

Millions of workers in recent months have returned to offices outfitted with new pandemic protocols meant to keep them healthy and safe. But temperature checks and plexiglass barriers between desks can’t prevent one of the most dangerous workplace be...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Norway’s Oil Workers Fear for Future as Rigs Go Remote

OSLO — A shift to operating oil rigs remotely from land, which has been accelerated by lower crude prices, has rekindled concerns among Norwegian unions over the impact on the safety of offshore workers and the loss of well-paid jobs. …

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Travelers Profit Rises With Higher Premiums, Lower Costs

Oct 20 — Property and casualty insurer Travelers Companies Inc beat third-quarter profit expectations on Tuesday, helped by higher premiums, lower costs and an increase in returns from non-fixed income investments. The New York-based company, seen as...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

4 Charged in Allegedly Staged Crash Settled for $4.7M

NEW ORLEANS — Four people have been charged in what prosecutors say was a staged wreck that was settled for $4.7 million. The indictment brought the total to 32 people accused of faking accidents with tractor-trailers to get insurance money, …

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Many Homes Likely Lost In North-Central Colorado Fires

BOULDER, Colo. — Nearly 3,000 people were forced to flee from a fast-moving fire in north-central Colorado and authorities believe a large number of homes were destroyed. The CalWood Fire started around noon Saturday near the Cal-Wood Education Cente...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Claims Business: RecovX Health, Tokio Marine and CrowdStrike, Ford and Verisk

ReCovX Health Launches Injury Claim Filing Tool RecovX Health, an insurtech based in Sarasota, Fla., has launched a product that allows injured people to file third-party liability accident claims with insurance companies. RecovX founder and owner Le...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Lawsuit Accuses Indian Hackers of Leaking Businessman’s Emails

Iranian-American businessman Farhad Azima has accused a pair of Indian companies of stealing his emails and publishing them to the web, according to alawsuit filed in federal court in North Carolina. Azima’s suit alleges that Indian security company...

Posted: Oct 20, 2020

Engineers’ Report Bolsters Proposed Mississippi Pump Project

JACKSON, Miss. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday published a draft of a new environmental impact statement that supports a proposal for massive pumps to drain floodwaters from parts of the rural Mississippi Delta — a reversal …

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

Strong Winds Fan Colorado’s Largest Recorded Wildfire

CreplaceENNE, Wyo. — The largest wildfire in Colorado history grew overnight as high winds pushed the blaze through rural communities and the forecast predicts more “extreme fire behavior” on Saturday. Gusts of up to 70 mph (112 kph) overnight create...

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

Dredge Scarcity Could Make Rebuilding Coast Slower, Costly

NEW ORLEANS — Just as Louisiana begins an ambitious slate of projects to rebuild its crumbling coastline, the essential ingredients — sea sand and river silt — will be harder to come by. That’s not because these materials are rare; …

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

At Least 5 Injured in Blast, Fire at Virginia Strip Mall

HARRISONBURG, Va. — An investigation was underway into the cause of an explosion and large fire at a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Virginia, that injured at least five people Saturday morning. Three people were taken to hospitals after the inciden...

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

California Wildfires: Utility Lacked Basic Training Before Blackouts

SAN FRANCISCO — When Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to large swaths of wildfire-prone Northern California last fall, few of the emergency personnel managing the blackouts for the nation’s largest utility had learned the fundamentals of managing an...

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

What Drove Protesters in May Unrest Over George Floyd?

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Before facing federal arson charges, the only other time McKenzy Ann DeGidio Dunn could recall appearing before a judge was three years ago, when she was legally adopted by a rural Pope County, Minnesota family at …

Posted: Oct 19, 2020

Torched Black Churches Weigh Justice, Forgiveness

PORT BARRE, La. — From her front steps, Debra Mallet can see the plot of sandy-colored earth where her church once stood. It was where her daughter got married and where her husband is buried, a sacred house of memories …

Posted: Oct 19, 2020