Hinshaw Insurance Law Radio Episode 2: An Interview with Insurance Reporter Jeff Sistrunk

In the second episode of the Hinshaw Insurance Law Radio podcast, host Scott M. Seaman, a Chicago-based partner and co-chair of the national Insurance & Reinsurance Services group, sits down with Jeff Sistrunk, senior insurance reporter for Law360, to discuss Jeff's top five most important insurance decisions in 2016. Scott then adds a couple of runner-up cases of his own. The two also review Jeff's five insurance cases to watch in 2017.

Topping Jeff's list of most important insurance cases in 2016 was In re: Viking Pump and Warren Pumps Insurance Appeals, in which the New York Court of Appeals unanimously held that the "all-sums" allocation method, under which each of an insured's policies can be held liable for an entire loss, should apply in Viking Pump and Warren Pumps' asbestos injury coverage dispute with a slew of excess insurers. Jeff notes that Viking Pump has proved the most cited 2016 insurance case since it was decided in early May.

Rancosky v. Washington National Insurance Co., a Pennsylvania high court case, tops Jeff's list of the most important insurance cases to watch in 2017. The crux of Rancosky is whether the Superior Court's 1994 ruling in the case of Terletsky v. Prudential Property & Casualty Insurance Co. definitively established a method of determining an insurer’s bad faith under state law, and if so, whether the appeals court erred in holding in the instant case that an insurer’s “motive of self-interest or ill-will” is merely a discretionary consideration rather than a mandatory prerequisite to proving bad faith. Jeff noted that according to his sources "a great deal of confusion" over how the Terletsky standard should be applied has prevailed in Pennsylvania for two decades.

Listen to the full episode.

Read "Viking Pump Tops Biggest Insurance Decisions Of 2016" on Law360.com (subscription required)

Read "Insurance Cases to Watch In 2017" on Law360.com (subscription required)

You can follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffSistrunk