U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York at the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Courthouse on 225 Cadman Plaza East in the civic center of Brooklyn.
New York courts recognize the well-settled principle that the duty to defend in an insurance policy is broader than the duty to indemnify. They also construe policy exclusions narrowly and place the burden on the insurer to prove that an exclusion applies.
Nevertheless, that does not mean the courts will not enforce a clearly-drafted exclusion when the facts plainly fall within the scope of the exclusion. Just recently, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted summary judgment to an insurer, holding that the insurer had no duty to defend, based on the terms of an exclusion in the policy.
