Experience
Property & Casualty and Specialty Lines Insurance Dispute and Coverage Experience
Heidi Hudson Raschke acts as coverage counsel for, and litigates on behalf of, commercial insurers in matters involving many different lines of business, including property, directors and officers liability, errors and omissions liability, professional liability, employment practices liability, commercial general liability, representations and warranties insurance, financial institution bonds, cyber, business interruption, and pollution. She has substantial experience, at both the primary and excess layer, with traditional insurance coverage issues, as well as with both standard and unique exclusions or endorsements used in the industry.
She has represented and counseled insurers on many different types of claims, including property damage, business interruption losses, construction defect, third-party property damage, antitrust and statutory violations, environmental damage, product contamination, pollution, sexual/physical abuse, molestation and assault claims, personal and advertising injury claims, and bad faith exposure.
Representative Decisions and Engagements
- Obtained judgment on the pleadings for insurer, ruling that directors and officers liability insurance policy did not provide coverage for claims, losses, or other damages in underlying antitrust multidistrict litigation, described as one of the largest antitrust class actions in the country, saving client’s $15 million of policy limit.
- Obtained judgment on the pleadings for insurer in putative nationwide class action lawsuit seeking coverage under commercial property insurance policies for purported business interruption losses allegedly sustained in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Obtained judgment on the pleadings for insurers in lawsuits seeking coverage under commercial property insurance policy for purported business interruption losses allegedly sustained in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of lawsuit against insurers seeking coverage under commercial property insurance policy for purported business interruption losses allegedly sustained in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Trial counsel for insurers in $53 million coverage dispute arising out of the construction of a high-end assisted living facility in Miami. General contractor sought coverage from owner’s post-construction property insurers. Summary judgment for insurers affirmed by Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Obtained summary judgment in $11 million coverage dispute involving builder's risk policy. Claim involved mold in a luxury condominium complex in South Florida. Affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Part of trial team that obtained summary judgment resulting in dismissal of $25 million property insurance claim; judge in the Northern District of Georgia issued insurer-favorable order upholding exclusion for flood coverage under “all risks” policy.
- Obtained summary judgment ruling for first-party property carrier based on insured’s breach of condition precedent to coverage. Affirmed by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal.
- Trial counsel in first-party commercial property insurance coverage and bad faith dispute involving defective construction of multifamily apartment buildings in South Carolina.
- Represented boiler and machinery insurer in commercial arbitration against first-party property insurer regarding scope of coverage under respective policies.
- Represented first-party property insurer in multimillion-dollar dispute involving scope of coverage for claimed electronic data processing losses.
- First-chaired business litigation arbitration and obtained defense ruling for client in $1 million contract dispute.