January 2020 Subrogation Newsletter

On January 24, 2020, a massive explosion ripped through the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing facility in northwest Houston. The blast damaged 450 structures in the area surrounding the facility. MWL’s Texas office heard the news a few hours after the explosion and took immediate action on behalf of its clients and retained a fire and explosion team of experts to begin investigation into the root cause of the explosion. MWL will be at the forefront of the investigation actively pursuing subrogation recoveries on behalf of our clients who pay out losses to their insureds as a result of this explosion. If you have claims related to this loss that require subrogation recovery or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mark Solomon at [email protected] or Gary Wickert at [email protected]. They can also be reached at 800-637-9176.

Massachusetts federal district court has ruled that tort law does not provide for recovery of “inherent diminution in value” damages by a third-party claimant. The decision is being appealed but appears to clearly place Massachusetts in the group of states that don’t allow for recovery of such damages from a third-party tortfeasor.

Montana remains one of the toughest states to subrogate in because it has a very strict made whole policy. It is the rule in Montana that an insured must be totally reimbursed for all losses as well as costs, including attorney fees involved in recovering those losses, before the insurer can exercise any right of subrogation, regardless of contract language to the contrary.

MWL is pleased to announce that Zahra Aziz has joined our insurance litigation team as a senior associate attorney in our California branch office. Zahra’s litigation experience adds to a wealth of experience at MWL’s Santa Ana office. Zahra’s practice focuses on insurance litigation, especially nationwide insurance subrogation involving workers’ compensation, automobile, health insurance and ERISA, property and casualty, premises liability, insurance coverage, and civil litigation. Zahra is also fluent in Farsi and conversational in Spanish. We look forward to utilizing Zahra’s extensive experience handling subrogation litigation across California