These top cases from 2019 involve two on long-tail claims and interestingly two on malicious prosecution. The increase in wrongful conviction litigation has given rise to new insurance coverage issues. In 2019, several courts considered the insurance triggers for claims of wrongful convictions and malicious prosecution under commercial general liability policies.

The cases

1. Connecticut Supreme Court decides significant coverage issues

The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed that state law permits an "unavailability of insurance" rule, under which a policyholder is not liable to pay a share of its own defense and indemnity costs for periods when insurance for a certain risk was unavailable in the marketplace. Instead, those costs must be divvied up on a proportional, or "pro rata," basis among insurers that issued policies covering the risk in other periods. The court applied the rule in Vanderbilt because the insured was unable to obtain coverage after 1985 for individuals' claims for asbestos injuries allegedly caused by exposure to the company's industrial talc. The court also affirmed that an "occupational disease" exclusion in some of Vanderbilt's policies bars coverage not only for asbestos claims brought by the company's own workers, but also those brought by people who were allegedly sickened by Vanderbilt's products in the "course of their work for other employers."