'War' at Heart in 9th Circuit Production Company-Insurer Case
Production companies' arguments that the 2014 fighting between Israel and Hamas wasn't war but Hamas terrorism and thus not excluded under insurance coverage of a TV series they were filming in Israel ignores that in the ordinary and popular sense,…
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the sustained bilateral hostilities between the two has been widely recognized as war, appellee Atlantic Specialty Insurance said in a docket 17-56672 opening brief (in Pacer) filed Wednesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Noting the production companies are indirect NBCUniversal subsidiaries, Atlantic said even NBCU news affiliates recognized the fighting as war. It said "war" has a special meaning in the insurance context requiring both sides be sovereigns or state-like entities, and Hamas has "numerous attributes" of sovereignty, such as governing territory. Production company appellants Universal Cable Productions and Northern Entertainment Productions in their opening brief (in Pacer) in February said it wasn't war since the U.S. doesn't recognize Hamas as a de jure or de facto government but as a terrorist organization, and the lower court that rejected their suit against Atlantic erroneously construed the plain and ordinary meaning of "war." They also said it erred by construing the Atlantic policy based on after-the-fact news articles, that it wrongly shifted the burden of proof and that they were reasonable in construing the policy to cover Hamas' terrorism.