Abuse Exclusion Applied To Bar Coverage For Entire EEOC Proceeding

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, applying New York law, held that a Sexual and Physical Abuse exclusion barred coverage for a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") in its entirety because the Policy's definition of "Claim" included the EEOC complaint as a whole, and the complaint clearly alleged conduct triggering the exclusion. Joy Constr. Corp. v. Starstone Specialty Ins. Co., 2025 WL 1677805 (S.D.N.Y. June 13, 2025).

The claimant, an employee of the insured construction company, lodged an EEOC complaint against the company alleging that she was discriminated against on the basis of her sex and gender and that she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. In the complaint, the employee detailed the repeated sexual advances that her supervisor made toward her, including by making sexually charged remarks about her body and groping her breasts. The