The City of Chicago filed a Federal Declaratory Judgment Action against Westchester Insurance Company claiming Coverage for a "catastrophic failure" of an uninterruptible power supply ("UPS") which allegedly caused the City's entire 911 system to fail, in City of Chicago v. Westchester Fire Insurance Co., Download City of Chicago v. Westchester Fire Insurance Co. (N.D. Ill. Case No. 08C5535, Opinion and Order Filed September 1, 2010) PUBLIC ACCESS also published as 2010 WL 3516066 (N.D. Ill. September 1, 2010)(Westlaw subscription required to access Westlaw).
In an illuminating Opinion that prefigures the same or similar Expert Witness issues in Insurance Cases yet to come involving Catastrophic Claims, the Federal Court denied Westchester Fire's motion to bar the Expert Witness Testimony of two witnesses as based on an incorrect methodology and as "speculative". The Court held with respect to both Experts that their methodology was acceptable under Federal Expert Witness standards, and that their Reported Testimony and Opinions were not "speculative". City of Chicago v. Westchester Fire Insurance Co., 2010 WL 3516066 at *7-*8. One of these two Experts noted in his Report that the UPS system experienced a "catastrophic failure". Id. at *7. The Court noted in particular that this Declaratory Judgment Action will proceed to a Bench Trial. Id. at *7.
The City of Chicago also filed a Motion to Disqualify an Expert Witness in that case. The City's Motion was granted in part as to Westchester Fire's Expert's proferred Opinions "related to the replacement of the UPS" because the Expert in question was simply not qualified "to testify about the City's decisionmaking process" regarding replacement of the UPS. Id. at *6. On the other hand, the City's Motion to Disqualify was denied regarding the proferred Testimony of this same Expert "as to his opinion that the City's temporary power system was a disproportionate response to the incident." Id.
These and similar issues as to the reception or rejection of various Expert Witness Opinion Testimony will arise again, in Insurance Cases pending and yet to be filed as a result of many Catastrophe Claims resulting from the Gulf Oil Explosion Disaster, and from other Catastrophes as well.
The Insurance Questions including Business Interruption Coverage Issues have largely been experienced before, and they have in general terms been addressed by many Courts, in many decided Cases. Dennis Wall is Co-Author of the leading book on Insurance Coverage for Catastrophe Claims, "CATClaims: Insurance Coverage for Natural and Man-Made Disasters" (West Publishing Company 2008; 2010 Supplement in process). Mr. Wall will be a featured speaker on several panels which will address the BP Oil Spill Catastrophe. On September 15, 2010, he will be a featured speaker on a panel addressing "BP Oil Spill Damages Claims: The Coverage Predicates" at the September 15, 2010 Seminar of the Insurance Law Committee sponsored by the Orange County Bar Association in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Wall will speak on a panel at the American Conference Institute's Bad Faith Litigation Conference in Orlando, Florida on November 30, 2010 on "Dealing With Catastrophic Disasters: How to Properly Investigate and Handle Overwhelming Claims". The American Conference Institute is offering a discount to readers of this Blog: Download ACI Advises Readers of the Insurance Claims and Issues and Insurance Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog are entitled to a discount.
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