A lawyer who has been charged with embezzling funds from lottery winners is entitled to defense costs under his professional liability policy, a U.S. district court ruled last week.
Jason M. Kurland was a stock partner at Rivkin Radler LLP, according to last Wednesday’s ruling from the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, in Jason M. Kurland Vs. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co.
The alliance unit Fireman’s Fund issued a “lawyer’s insurance for professional liability claims” for the period January 25, 2020 to January 25, 2021, according to the ruling.
The coverage limited liability to $ 10 million for each indemnity and $ 20 million in total, subject to a self-insured $ 500,000 retention, according to the policy.
In August 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Kurland accused of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud, electronic fraud, fraud with honest services, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. The indictment alleges in part that he and co-defendants conspired to defraud three lottery winners of their property and their right to his “honest service”
; as their lawyer, the decision saidAccording to a statement issued in August 2020 by the US Public Prosecutor’s Office in Brooklyn, the lottery winners, who lost 107 million dollars, provided him with funds to invest safely.
Some money was sent back to the lottery victims as “interest payments”, while other funds went to support the defendants’ lavish lifestyles, the statement said.
Mr. Kurland sought coverage for attorney’s fees and costs, and Fireman’s Fund denied coverage. He brought an action against the insurer, which lodged a claim for summary judgment.
The court ruled in favor of Mr Kurland.
The summary judgment claims concerned “only” whether the underlying measure was a claim for damages, the judgment said. The court concluded that it was, with reference to ambiguity in the policy language.
The ambiguous provisions of the policy “would require the Fireman’s Fund to defend a civil process seeking both pecuniary damages and injunctions,” the ruling said. “The police are as ambiguous as they are applied to all criminal charges aimed at both ‘damages’ and imprisonment – a form of non-profit relief,” it said.
The court ordered Fireman’s Fund “to pay immediately, continuously and continuously and up to the policy liability limit” Kurland’s defense costs in the underlying action.
Mr. Kurland’s lawyer, Andrew N. Bourne, a partner with Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna LLP in New York, said in a statement, “We are grateful that the court read the policy as we did. Professional liability policies such as the one in question can provide coverage for prosecuted crimes.”
The insurance company’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
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