While Janet and Mary Beth were emerging victorious in the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the defense team of Justin Joy and Bill Haltom were involved in a major victory in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee last Friday in the case of First Horizon National Corporation v. Houston Casualty Company, et al.
In June of 2015, the plaintiffs had paid $212 million to the Department of Justice to settle False Claims Act allegations involving deficiencies in due diligence and underwriting related to mortgage loans. Plaintiffs sought $75 million in insurance coverage from the defendants for that settlement.
Justin and Bill served as local counsel working with outstanding lawyers from New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, representing several of the defendants.
They filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on the basis that there was no insurance coverage for the policy period at issue and because plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient notice of the claim under the applicable policy.
On Friday afternoon, the Court granted the defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, ruling that the defendants properly denied coverage of the claim because plaintiffs failed to provide proper notice of the claim.
We congratulate Justin and Bill on this victory in a complex case.
Mr. Haltom has been with the firm since 1978. He has tried over 100 jury trials and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
He is also an award-winning newspaper and magazine humor columnist. For over 20 years, his columns have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and law journals across the country, and 24/7 on his blog, www.billhaltom.com. He has authored six books, ranging in topics from seersucker to civility. He has served as chair of the editorial boards for four magazines, including the ABA Journal, the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. A popular speaker, Bill has delivered commencement addresses and has been the featured speaker at conventions, banquets and leadership seminars.
Mr. Joy has a variety of experience in various civil litigation matters including business and commercial litigation, insurance coverage disputes, healthcare liability defense, personal injury and business torts. He also represents media organizations and journalists in defamation actions and other matters. Mr. Joy has been involved in a number of jury trials to verdict.
Mr. Joy also provides counsel to clients in various industries in the area of information privacy and cybersecurity including security incident investigation, security awareness and policy drafting, cyber risk management and breach response management. Specifically in the area of healthcare, Mr. Joy counsels covered entities on a variety of matters pertaining to HIPAA Privacy Rule, Security Rule, and Breach Notification Rule compliance.