An insurer’s bid to remove a lawsuit to federal court was stymied. The case involved a “service of suit” paragraph in an insurance policy permitting the insured to select the venue and forum of a dispute under the policy. The court found that the insurer waived the right to remove an action from state to federal court, notwithstanding a provision purporting to preserve the insurer’s right to “seek a transfer” of the case. The court interpreted consecutively each sentence of the relevant paragraph “like the concentric rings of a target.” Among other things, the court considered whether the phrase “seek a transfer” contemplated seeking removal of the action to federal court. That phrase did not include seeking removal, notwithstanding caselaw that had reached a different result in the context of a different forum selection clause employing the word “transfer” in a grammatically and substantively different way. Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. v. Chartis Specialty Insurance Co., Case No. 4:12-cv-40156 (USDC D. Mass. Aug. 19, 2013).
This post written by Michael Wolgin.
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