In a case where we represented an insurance broker, a Federal District Judge from the Southern District of West Virginia granted our motion to dismiss and dismissed the suit in its entirety. The plaintiff was a women’s fashion and accessory boutique. The suit arose from a dispute over the plaintiff’s insurance coverage for damages it sustained while being ordered to close by West Virginia’s COVID-19-related orders. The insurance carrier filed a motion to dismiss, and, thereafter, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the carrier.

We received a favorable decision from the Department of Labor (DOL) denying a coal miner’s claim for benefits when the only evidence submitted by his widow was the death certificate listing severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the primary cause of death. The DOL claims examiner agreed with our position that the death certificate alone, was insufficient evidence to sustain the claimant’s burden of proving that her husband had totally disabling coal workers’ pneumoconiosis during his lifetime.