PSD Wins Summary Judgment for Oceanus Insurance

PSD client Oceanus Insurance Company won a summary judgment motion today in Federal court in West Virginia, in Soyoola v. Oceanus Insurance Company. The plaintiff brought claims for breach of contract and unfair and deceptive acts claiming that Oceanus should have provided higher limits of liability. In a lengthy decision, the court ruled that plaintiff was not even entitled to take depositions because the undisputed evidence reflected an insufficient communication from a patient to a doctor to constitute a “claim” within the meaning of the claims-made-and-reported policy. Previously Oceanus successfully defeated a motion to remand the matter to state court and obtained an important ruling that several claims were preempted by the Federal Liability Risk Retention Act.