Multi-Million Dollar Insurance Case Hinges on Oxford Comma

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has ruled on the Oxford – or serial – comma, finding that a policy’s punctuation was not unclear and that a professional liability policy did not cover a multimillion-dollar judgment resulting from a lawsuit. The case is ECB USA vs. Chubb Insurance and Executive Risk Indemnity, Civil Action No. 20-20569-Civ-Scola, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 241716 (S.D. Fla. Dec. 17, 2021).

Control Group, a management and financial consulting firm, and its accounting subsidiary, Constantin Associates, were insured by Chubb and Executive Risk for several years. In 2018, ECB USA and others sued Constantin Associates in Miami-Dade Circuit Court alleging wrongdoing in a professional audit.