Appeals Significant Cases
Eleventh Circuit Finds for Insurer in COVID-19 Case of First Impression in Georgia
Phil Savrin and Shawn Bingham successfully represented Allied Insurance Company of America (a Nationwide entity) in resisting a claim by a restaurant (Henry’s Louisiana Grill) seeking coverage for business income lost after it suspended its…
Phil Savrin and Shawn Bingham successfully represented Allied Insurance Company of America (a Nationwide entity) in resisting a claim by a restaurant (Henry’s Louisiana Grill) seeking coverage for business income lost after it suspended its operations after the COVID-19 outbreak. The central question, which had not been decided previously under Georgia law, was whether the closure of the restaurant following an executive order by the Georgia governor resulted in a “direct physical loss” of the property. The appeals court agreed that the term “direct physical loss” under Georgia law requires a physical to the property that is “tangible or concrete.” Here, at most, the governor’s order caused “intangible” harm as “it did not destroy, ruin, or even damage any part of the restaurant.” The appeals court noted that its reasoning is in line with “every federal and state appellate court” that applied the same policy language in the COVID-19 context.
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NLRB Affirms Dismissal of Failure to Bargain Complaint
Dallas FMG attorneys Robert Chadwick and Robin Foret obtained a favorable appellate ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) on behalf of a transportation company. After an evidentiary hearing, an administrative law judge below…
Henry’s Louisiana Grill, Inc. v. Allied Insurance Company of America, 35 F.4th 1318 (11th Cir. 2022). In a case of first impression, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of an insured’s claim for…
Siasim Columbia, LLC, v. Scottsdale Insurance Company, Case No. 21-12918 (11th Cir., June 29, 2022). FMG Attorney Philip Savrin obtained an appellate victory in an insurance coverage case that arose from property damage to a…
Silvia Cotriss v. City of Roswell, et al., Case No. 19-12747 (11th Cir., June 29, 2022). FMG Attorney Michael Hill obtained affirmance of a summary judgment award on behalf of the City of Roswell and…
Richard Durham v. Aerial Funding, LLC, Case No. 21-13847 (11th Cir., July 1, 2022). In appeal handled by Atlanta Partners Michael Freed and Brian Goldberg, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a plaintiff’s wrongful…
FMG Appellate Team Obtains Victory for Nonprofit Corporation in California Court of Appeals
Jason A Bezis v. Livermore Heritage Guild, Case No. A160921 (Cal. Ct. App., June 30, 2020). FMG’s San Francisco appellate team obtained an affirmance from the California Court of Appeals of a trial court’s denial…
Friendship Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Elevation Chophouse v. Hasty, (Ga. Ct. App.). The Georgia Court of Appeals recently granted a petition for interlocutory review filed by Atlanta Partners Wayne Melnick, Michael Freed, and Wes Jackson, of…
Albert Alikin and Nicholas Directo obtained the dismissal of their client, an insurance carrier, in Nevada federal court in a lawsuit brought by the client’s insured seeking benefits under an occupational accident medical expense policy.…
Dismissal in Bad Faith Claim Arising From Multi-Million dollar default in Kentucky
Barry Miller obtained a judgment on the pleadings dismissing FMG client from a bad faith case that resulted from a $4.25 million default judgment in the underlying auto accident. A federal court ruled that FMG’s…
Summary Judgment in Insurance Coverage Dispute in Georgia
Shawn Bingham and Eric Retter prevailed on a motion for summary judgment in the United State District Court for the Northern District of Georgia before Judge Totenberg. The matter involved a first-party property insurance case…
Summary Judgment in Multi-Million Dollar Class Action Pension Case in Georgia
Ben Mathis, Robert Marcovitch and Bill Buechner recently obtained summary judgment on behalf of Hall County in a class action pension lawsuit brought in the Superior Court. In the lawsuit, Plaintiffs sought over $100 million…
Plaintiff’s Verdict Overturned in Post Trial Motion in Massachusetts
Kevin Kenneally and William Gildea in FMG’s Boston office, won a post-trial motion for JNOV to overturn a $750,000 judgment awarded in favor of the Estate of a nursing home resident who allegedly died as…