MILWAUKEE – The Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. Insurance Coverage team was successful, once again, in recovering insurance benefits for one of its manufacturing clients.
On June 4, 2012, litigation attorneys, James Braza and Susan Schellinger won summary judgment for our client, finding that the insurance carrier, American Alternative Insurance Corporation, breached its duty to defend. After the insurance company failed to provide a coordinated defense for several similar product liability lawsuits, the policyholder took control of the defense and retained its own national coordinating counsel to oversee the cases. United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin Judge Barbara Crabb found that the policyholder acted reasonably in doing so and ordered the defendant insurance company to reimburse the policyholder $997,646.58 for the fees incurred for its national counsel, plus statutory interest at the rate of 9% per annum. The decision is one of only a few cases nationwide that have addressed a policyholder’s right to national counsel in instances involving multiple product liability claims.
Davis & Kuelthau’s insurance coverage team has once again demonstrated that, with proper legal counsel, a policyholder can maximize benefits under its policy.
Founded in 1967, Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. provides the complete spectrum of business legal services to thousands of clients across the state and nationally. Our more than 70 attorneys practicing from six offices in Wisconsin have national experience combined with strong community ties. Our litigators have successfully handled hundreds of trials in front of juries, judges, arbitrators, mediators, and administrative tribunals, at all levels of the court system from circuit court through appeals and supreme courts and in numerous jurisdictions including local, state, federal, and international. Just as importantly, we have frequently spared clients the costs and uncertainties of trial by achieving dismissals, summary judgments or settlements through creative and scholarly presentation of legal arguments.