Firm News

Wiggin and Dana’s Michael Menapace and Ivana Greco were victorious last week in their representation of Old Dominion Insurance Company, which had hired Wiggin and Dana to defend it in a class action filed in Florida state court – Gravitystorm v. Old Dominion Ins. Co. This comes on the heels of another dismissal recently achieved for Zurich American Insurance Company in Illinois federal court. See here.

In the Gravitystorm matter, the plaintiff alleged on behalf of the class that Old Dominion had breached its commercial auto policies by paying total vehicle losses that did not include the fees to transfer title and license tags or new vehicle registration. Judge Bronis agreed with Old Dominion that the parties’ dispute concerned the “amount of loss” each party was claiming and, therefore, Old Dominion had properly demanded that the dispute go through the policy’s appraisal process.

The court compelled the appraisal process and dismissed the class action complaint.