Insurance carrier asks court for relief from coverage for NY 'ghost gun' lawsuits
The insurer says that sellers of untraceable guns are not entitled to coverage or a defense under their policies.
Subsidiaries of insurance giant AIG this week filed four lawsuits against companies accused of shipping “ghost gun” parts into New York, asking the court to declare that the insurers are not obligated to provide coverage for ghost gun-related lawsuits.
In all four cases, AIG subsidiary Granite State Insurance Company is represented by a Willkie Farr & Gallagher team led by partner Christopher St. Jeanos. In two of the suits, Willkie also represents AIG subsidiary and umbrella insurer National Union Fire Insurance Company.
The defendants in the suits are Texas-based firearms retailer Primary Arms, Tennessee-based retailer GS Performance, Washington-based retailer Rainier Arms and Missouri-based retailer KM Tactical. The suits were first surfaced by Law.com Radar.
The four companies are named as defendants in a trio of lawsuits filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the cities of Rochester and Buffalo in 2022 against a group of gun manufacturers and distributors.
The ghost gun lawsuits accused the companies of shipping firearm components, including unfinished frames and receivers easily assembled into functional firearms, into New York. All three suits are pending in federal court.
James has argued that the sale of ghost gun parts and kits presents “a clear danger to all New Yorkers.”
“These deadly weapons are unregistered, untraceable, and do not require any background check to purchase, which means they can easily end up in dangerous hands,” James said in January.
According to the four complaints filed this week, each of the firearms retailers tendered the ghost gun lawsuits to Granite State, asking the insurer to pay its defense expenses and indemnify it for any settlements or damages resulting from the lawsuit. Granite State denied the claims for coverage, according to the four complaints.
Accepting the allegations in the lawsuits as true for the purposes of the insurance coverage determination, the retailers are “not entitled to a defense or indemnity” from the insurers for several reasons, St. Jeanos wrote in the complaints.
St. Jeanos argued that the retailers’ insurance policies only offer coverage for lawsuits that allege accidental conduct.
“Rather, the Ghost Gun Lawsuits allege that KM Tactical deliberately shipped firearm components into New York in violation of various laws, and that it did so knowing its actions would lead to a concomitant increase in gun violence,” St. Jeanos wrote. “Those allegations are not allegations of accidental conduct under governing law.”
The policies also only cover damages related to “bodily injury,” which are not alleged in the ghost gun suits, St. Jeanos argued.
All four suits were filed in the Southern District of New York. The three suits filed earlier in the week were initially assigned to different judges, but St. Jeanos on Friday filed a letter asking the court to designate the cases as related and assign them to a single judge.
The retailers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday, and St. Jeanos declined to comment.
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