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Is a company’s action against a corporate executive to recover the costs of defense the company advanced on his behalf “restitutionary” in nature and are the amounts involved therefore precluded from coverage under the D&O insurance policy’s definition of Loss? In an opinion that undoubtedly will gladden the hearts of policyholder-side advocates, a California appellate court held that it is not. As discussed below, there are a number of interesting features to the court’s opinion. The California Court of Appeals’ November 12, 2024 opinion can be found here.Continue Reading CA Court: Suit to Recover Executive’s Defense Fees not “Restitutionary”

Some of you may have heard: there was a Presidential election in the United States last Tuesday, as a result of which there will be a change in administration next January. This upcoming change almost certainly means a categorical shift in the regulatory environment in Washington, including in particular at the SEC. Many of the SEC’s regulatory initiatives under the Biden administration may be rolled back. In particular, the new administration likely will pull the plug on the SEC’s pending climate change disclosure guidelines. These likely developments at the federal level may mean that, as Cydney Posner noted in a November 7, 2024, post on the Cooley law firm’s PubCo blog (here), State level actions “may, in many ways, take on much larger significance.”

For that reason, it is worth taking a closer look at the ruling last week in the federal court lawsuit in which various business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are challenging the California statutes requiring companies “doing business” in the state to make certain climate change-related disclosures. As discussed below, the Court has denied the plaintiffs’ pre-discovery motion for summary judgment on First Amendment grounds. The court’s interesting ruling may provide some indication of the future direction of the litigation, as well as on the likelihood that the California statutes will eventually compel companies to make the mandated disclosures. A copy of the Central District of California’s November 5, 2024, order can be found here.Continue Reading What Now for Climate Change Disclosure Requirements?

Many private company D&O insurance policies have a so-called antitrust exclusions that precludes coverage for claims alleging violations of the antitrust laws. However, these exclusions are written broadly and often seek to preclude a wide range of kinds of claims, beyond just claims alleging violations of the antitrust laws. A recent case from the Eastern…

In a post last week, I wrote about the recurring question of who is an “officer” for purposes of determining qualification for advancement, indemnification, and insurance benefits. I received several comments about the post, including a note from Keith Paul Bishop of the Allen Matkins law firm, who writes the California Corporate & Securities Law blog. Bishop wrote to send me links to two of his blog posts, in which he explored the California and Delaware statutory provisions relevant to the question of, as he put it, “what makes an officer an officer?” His blog posts provide interesting additional perspective on this question.Continue Reading More About Who is an “Officer”

In a recent decision, an intermediate California appellate court affirmed a trial court’s holding that the professional services exclusion in a healthcare records software provider’s D&O insurance policy precludes coverage for the company’s $118.6 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of kickback payment allegations. As discussed below, the appellate court’s decision raises questions about the appropriate wording for professional services exclusions in D&O insurance policies. A copy of the court’s June 21, 2024, opinion can be found here. Geoffrey Fehling’s July 2, 2024, post in the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm’s Legal Updates blog about the court’s decision can be found here.Continue Reading Professional Services Exclusion Bars D&O Coverage for $118 Million DOJ Settlement

Napa Valley

The D&O Diary was on assignment last week in Napa Valley in California. Although I have visited Napa several times in the past, it has been a while since I have been there. I had forgotten what a beautiful place it is and how much fun it is to visit.

My primary purpose…

In an interesting March 18, 2024, decision, a California federal district court, applying California law, has held that insurance coverage may be available under the D&O liability endorsement to a community association policy for a claim arising from funds misdirected due to fraudulent payment instructions in a spoofed email. The court held that because the non-payment happened due to the association’s treasurer’s alleged negligence, the vendor’s claim for non-payment arose out of “wrongful acts” of the treasurer, and therefore the vendor’s claim triggered coverage. The court’s decision raises some interesting possibilities about the potential for D&O insurance coverage for these kinds of misdirected payment claims, and it also raises interesting possibilities about potential coverage for breach of contract claims.Continue Reading Claim for Nonpayment Due to Payment Instruction Fraud Potentially Covered Under D&O Policy

Section 533 of the California Insurance Code provides that an insurer is not liable for loss caused by an insured’s willful act. The applicability and impact of Section 533 are frequently litigated issues in insurance coverage cases to which California law applies. The following guest post surveys the recent significant case law involving Section 533. The article’s authors are Marisa DeMartini, Vice President, Management Claims Liability Manager, Ascot Insurance Company, James Talbert, Associate, Bailey Cavalieri LLC and Elan Kandel, Member, Bailey Cavalieri LLC. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the author’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: 2023 Survey of Significant Decisions Involving California Section 533

In my recent wrap-up of the top D&O stories of 2023, I noted that one of the key developments during the past year was California’s adoption of new climate change disclosure requirements, which were enacted at a time when there was the added prospect that the SEC would finally release its own climate change disclosure guidelines by April 2024. While the California requirements have not yet been implemented and the final SEC disclosure guidelines have not yet even been released, there are growing signs that these climate change-related disclosure requirements may face significant hurdles and challenges.

It is not news that the SEC disclosure guidelines, whenever they are finally released, likely will face significant legal challenges, as I have previously noted on this site (here). However, this past week, in a Congressional hearing before a House Financial Services subcommittee, as reported in a January 18, 2024, Law360 article (here), spokespersons for conservative and business interests reiterated their belief that the SEC’s climate change disclosure guidelines, as proposed, reflect “several deficiencies,” and likely will face significant legal challenges.Continue Reading Climate Change Disclosure Requirements Face Hurdles and Challenges

Ever since March 2022, when the SEC released its proposed climate change disclosure guidelines, observers and commentators have watching and waiting to see when the agency would release its final disclosure rules. But in the meantime, important developments elsewhere may mean that many companies may face climate change-related disclosure requirements regardless of the shape the SEC’s final guidelines take. As I noted (here), in July, the European Union adopted its first set of sustainability reporting standards, which will have extensive impact both within and outside the EU. Now, the California legislature has adopted two far-reaching climate-related disclosure bills, which could affect thousands of companies – both public and private, and both within and outside California – and that together could, as the Wall Street Journal put it, represent “among the biggest changes in corporate disclosure in decades.”Continue Reading California Enacts Far-Reaching Climate-Related Disclosure Requirements