"Just because the act of using an illegal substance is purposeful does not mean that an injury stemming from that act, including a fatal overdose, was too," said the unanimous opinion.

The Appellate Division, First Department court also allowed the Botanical Garden to proceed with a related breach of the implied covenant of good faith claim against the insurance company.

The female-owned claims adjuster business was attempting to have the courts enforce "merely its own gloss" on a services agreement that never promised to dole out a "fair amount" of insurance claims to the adjuster, the Sixth Circuit opinion said.

A state appeals court has ruled that a Rochester-based insurance and employee benefits company and related defendants are deemed to have admitted malicious-prosecution allegations leveled against them by a former employee.

The New York State Appellate Division court set out in detail numerous claims the lawyer, who it appears has offices in Manhattan and Connecticut, made to the grievance committee about the checks in question, along with his claim that he paid $17,000 to his client out his own money due to what he said was a sense of personal responsibility to the client, according to the justices.

The $20 million award's expected impact "poses an existential financial threat to New Yorkers of all stripes," argued Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which along with nearly 30 other industry and advocacy organizations weighed in as amici curiae in the lawsuit's appeal.

The injured parties lawyer, a veteran plaintiffs-side personal injury attorney, said he believes the $20 million award from the Appellate Division, First Department brings New York state into a new, more "modern era" for pain-and-suffering compensation.

The detailed opinion focused largely on two key elements found in the relevant policy language issued by Society Insurance: causation and the meaning of "direct physical loss" as applied to the plaintiff businesses that saw their business and profits crater as the coronavirus took grip.