Robert T. Pindulic

Bob’s practice also involves providing claim evaluation and coverage opinions to insurance carriers, along with defending and instituting declaratory judgment actions on a wide range of coverage issues and policies. Bob has numerous published decisions in the area of bad faith and extracontractual damages in New Jersey and New York. These decisions have been instrumental in setting and maintaining a favorable standard for insurers with respect to bad faith litigation in both states. 

In addition to his experience in first-party insurance litigation, Bob also has experience in the defense of third-party claims including medical malpractice, rail yard accidents, claims of defective products, premises liability, FELA and construction defect. 

• Obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s breach of contract claim and bad faith claim based on Pennsylvania four-year statute of limitations for contract actions and two-year statute of limitations for bad faith claims; Leporace v. New York Life and Annuity, et al.
• Obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s state law claims as court agreed that individual disability policies issued to plaintiff were part of an employee welfare benefit plan and subject to ERISA; court further concluded that even though employer ceased operations years before the claim ERISA still applied and all state law claims were preempted; Hershan v. Unum Group
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of insurer in coverage dispute involving an assault despite claims that insured’s conduct was negligent and that extent of injuries sustained by plaintiff were not reasonably foreseeable; court inferred intent to injure as a matter of law, disregarded the negligence allegation based on facts developed during discovery and determined that injuries sustained were inherently probable; State Farm Fire and Casualty Company v. Carbo
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of insurer as court concluded that innocent spouse of alleged child abuser not entitled to defense or indemnity under a homeowner’s policy; State Farm Fire and Casualty Company v. Gregory
• Obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint seeking to rescind settlement agreement alleging mental incompetency; Ciarrocchi v. Unum Group
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of insurer in coverage dispute involving an assault as court inferred an intent to injure under New Jersey law; Lopez v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company
• Obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint due to lack of personal jurisdiction as incident at issue took place outside of New Jersey and defendant resided out of state; Billings v. Dean
• Represented disability carrier against counterclaim alleging that insurer engaged in a premeditated, fraudulent scheme to deny payment of disability benefits; court dismissed counterclaim, which alleged violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, common law fraud and breach of the disability policy; The Paul Revere Life. Ins. Co. v. Fink
• Obtained dismissal of plaintiff’s claims for bad faith conduct, deceptive practices under GBL § 349 and punitive damages;  Sichel v. Unum Provident Corp.
• Successfully opposed insured’s attempt to amend complaint to include bad faith claim; court agreed claim would be futile as such a cause of action in a first-party coverage action was not recognized by New York Federal Courts; Brown v. The Paul Revere Life Ins. Co.
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of insurer due to late notice without a justifiable excuse; Steinberg v. The Paul Revere Life Ins. Co.
• Represented insurer in obtaining a dismissal of bad faith claims where court held that such claims were not appropriate in a disability action where the dispute was fairly debatable; Tarsio v. Provident Ins. Companies
• Obtained substantial recoveries on behalf of excess carriers against primary carriers based on late notice and appreciable prejudice
• Litigated hundreds of actions on behalf of insurers with respect to the denial of benefits under individual and group insurance policies
• Represented carriers in prosecuting fraud claims on various types of policies, including the pursuit of claims under the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act
• Instituted declaratory judgments actions concerning the scope of coverage available under disability policies, including claims involving “accident verses sickness” and “appropriate care”
• Defended against plaintiff’s claim that liability limit in Employer’s Liability Policy, under New Jersey law, is unlimited
• Litigated hundreds of actions on behalf of insurers by way of declaratory judgment concerning a wide range of coverage issues
• Litigated complex actions involving significant bodily injury or death arising out of rail yard accidents