A coverage decision was just handed down in Pacific Hide & Fur Depot v. Great American Insurance Company. After reading the case name I looked to see the court. District of Montana. Yeah, that makes sense I thought. I didn’t have any interest in the case, but I felt good knowing that a coverage case, with the name Pacific Hide & Fur Depot in the caption, is being handled by a court in Montana. All is right in the world.

It seems to me that certain coverage cases just belong in certain courts. A dispute whether a lobster bite was an “occurrence” should be left in the hands of a Maine Court. Product recall coverage for maple syrup that’s too sticky? Leave Vermont courts to handle that. And nobody but a Florida court has any business deciding any coverage issue whatsoever involving orange juice.

Consider these other coverage cases over the years that thankfully ended up in the right judicial hands:

Alligator Enterprises, Inc. v. Gen. Agent’s Ins. Co. (Fla. Ct. App. 2000)

Peach State Univ. Serv., Inc. v. American Ins. Co. (5th Cir. 1975) (Georgia law)

Scottsdale Ins. Co. v. Maui Land and Pineapple Co., Inc. (D. Hawaii 2007)

Magic Valley Potato Shippers v. Cont’l Ins. Co. (Idaho 1987)

Progressive Sec. Ins. Co. v. Bayou Aggregate Materials (La. Ct. App. 2009)

Viking Electric Supply, Inc. v. United Fire & Cas. Co. (Minn. Ct. App. 1996)

Millers Capital Ins. Co. v. Big Star Tobacco Warehouse of Wilson, NC (E.D.N.C. 2001)

Longhorn Pest Control v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (Tex. Ct. App. 2011)

Grange Ins. Ass’n v. Sherry Apple, Parent/Guardian of Shelby Apple (Wash. Ct. App. 2004)

Berner Cheese Corp. v. ISBA Mut. Ins. Co. (Wis. 2008)

[With thanks to Lauren Kelly, 2L, Villanova Law School, for finding these cases. Lauren is spending the summer working with me as a Research Assistant in the preparation of the 3rd Edition of General Liability Insurance Coverage – Key Issues in Every State.]