Back in March 2013, PNC Financial Services Group sued Houston Casualty Co. and Axis Insurance Co. over previously filed class action lawsuits concerning overdraft charges. PNC claimed the class actions had cost it more than the $25 million retention limits required by each policy. However, the insurers still refused coverage based on nonexistent policy exclusions, reported Law 360.
According to a federal judge, PNC is only partially off the hook for all associated settlements. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon ruled that the “fee exception” to damages in PNC’s policies with Houston and Axis exclude coverage for the claims paid to refund individual customers in the two settlements.
However, PNC’s insurers are on the hook to cover the $30.3 million of attorneys’ fees and other costs it paid in two settlements of class actions. Essentially, under the fee exception in the policies, fees for professional services paid to a policyholder are not considered covered damages.
“As such, the court finds that there is no other way for the court to construe the fee exception than to encompass the settlements at issue here,” the judge wrote, according to the news source.
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