Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog

Directors and officers (“D&O”) liability insurance policies typically include provisions that aim to treat two or more “related” claims as a single claim, back dating the later claim to the date the original claim was first made. Whether two or more claims are, in fact, “related” frequently leads to coverage disputes since the outcome can have significant coverage implications by shifting claims into or out of a particular policy period. Because policies change from one year to the next and can have different insurers, retentions, limits, sublimits, exclusions, and other terms, questions about relatedness can have an outsized effect on the availability and scope of coverage.

Most modern liability insurance policies have provisions addressing whether different claims are “related” (or “interrelated”) for assessing potential coverage. Because the answer of whether two claims are “related” depends heavily on the facts giving rise to the underlying claims, the policy language, and applicable law, questions about relatedness can lead to significant insurance coverage disputes.