Hawai’i is generally an unfavorable jurisdiction for insurers given its “legal uncertainty rule,” under which there is a duty to defend if a determinative issue is nationally disputed and not yet decided in Hawai’i. However, as the Hawai’i Supreme Court recently clarified, that rule does not apply if the coverage issue debated nationally is not
Ninth Circuit
Jurisdictional Quickdraw: How to Avert a State-Court Remand Post-Coinbase
By Scott T. Garosshen on
Posted in Fourth Circuit, Ninth Circuit
In City of Martinsville, Virginia v. Express Scripts, Inc., 128 F.4th 265 (4th Cir. 2025), two circuits now have forged the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 Coinbase v. Bielski decision into a powerful tool that saves savvy defendants from parallel state-court jurisdiction pending their appeal challenging a remand to state court.
These circuits read Coinbase…
Appraisal First, or Else
By Scott T. Garosshen on
Posted in Ninth Circuit, Property
Trying to skip straight to court past the mandatory appraisal clause in an insurance policy runs into the brick wall of a dismissal for lack of ripeness.
In 50 Exchange Terrace LLC v. Mount Vernon Specialty Insurance Company, 129 F.4th 1186 (9th Cir. 2025), the Ninth Circuit recently considered a policyholder’s creative attempt to…