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CyrusOne, L.L.C. v. Great Am. Ins. Co.

Ohio Ct. App.June 11, 2021No. C-200156, C-200162Cited 4 times
Mixed ResultGreat Am. Ins. Co

Case Details

Judge(s)
Bock
Status
Published
Procedural Posture
summary judgment

Related Laws

No specific laws identified for this ruling.

Excerpt

INSURANCE — DAMAGES: In an insurance-coverage dispute under a crime-protection policy, the trial court's award in favor of the plaintiff-insured was not against the manifest weight of the evidence where plaintiff-insured brought a claim to recover its loss within the contractual period and the plaintiff-insured's expert in forensic accounting opined (1) that plaintiff-insured's dishonest employee received $5.6 million in kickbacks from vendors (2) that the vendors transferred the cost of the kickbacks to plaintiff-insured through "purposeful inflation" of invoices and bids and (3) that this "purposeful inflation" of at least $5.6 million was a financial loss to the plaintiff-insured. The trial court did not err by granting summary judgment in favor of defendant-insurer on plaintiff-insured's claim of bad faith where defendant-insurer had a reasonable justification for denying coverage: plaintiff-insured had failed to submit the necessary proof required to establish a loss under the insurance policy. The trial court did not err by entering summary judgment in favor of plaintiff-insured on defendant-insurer's affirmative defense of failure to cooperate: plaintiff-insured had not materially prejudiced defendant-insurer's investigation by failing to reveal that it had secretly recorded dishonest-employee's telephone conversations where the recordings were difficult to understand and plaintiff-insured had taken no action against employee after reviewing the recordings.

What This Ruling Means

**What Happened** This case involved a dispute between CyrusOne (a company) and its insurance company, Great American Insurance, over coverage for employee theft. CyrusOne discovered that one of their employees had been receiving kickbacks worth $5.6 million from vendors who did business with the company. The dishonest employee was essentially getting secret payments from suppliers, who then passed those costs back to CyrusOne through higher prices. When CyrusOne tried to claim this loss under their crime protection insurance policy, the insurance company initially refused to pay. **What the Court Decided** The court ruled in favor of CyrusOne, finding that their insurance claim was valid. The court determined that CyrusOne had properly filed their claim within the required time period and that expert testimony clearly showed the employee had engaged in dishonest conduct that caused financial harm to the company. **Why This Matters for Workers** This ruling demonstrates that companies have strong protections against employee theft and fraud. Workers should understand that accepting kickbacks or secret payments from vendors is considered theft and can result in serious legal consequences, including potential criminal charges and civil liability for damages caused to their employer.

This summary was generated to explain the ruling in plain English and is not legal advice.

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