C. Michael Johnson

Mike has litigated and counseled clients concerning construction, building and inland marine property losses, building / structure / roof collapses, building / structure / foundation earth and soil subsidence cases, a wide variety of fire and explosion cases, and all manner of property loss from flood, earthquake, wind/rainstorm, and hurricane. These cases commonly involve complex business interruption and extra expense coverage issues. Policies commonly involved are Commercial Property “All Risk” Primary/Excess Policies, Commercial Inland Marine and Builders Risk Policies, Manuscript Property Coverage Policies, Marine Hull Policies, and Fine Arts Policies.

Case Examples:

• Collapse Cases: One of the largest underground building commercial structures in the country located in Virginia; underground transportation tunnel in Los Angles, 120-foot-tall Super-Gantry crane in Louisiana; hail collapse of glass roof of one of the country’s largest hydroponic greenhouse in Nebraska; hotel in Key West.
• Defective Construction: Damage to commercial construction projects during construction by fire, explosion, and water intrusion through roofs, walls and window systems in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina.
• Storm Damage: Catastrophic damage to hotels, shopping centers, marinas and ports by hurricanes and tidal surges in multiple states along the East Coast and Gulf; flood loss to industrial buildings along the Mississippi; timber and agricultural losses in multiple states.
• Fire/Explosion: To hotels, shopping centers, automobile dealerships, sawmills; power plants, chemical plants and industrial manufacturing facilities in various states.
• Fine Arts: Theft of Picasso painting from international gallery; Damage to Stradivarius Violin; Damage to rare paintings in Art Gallery in California; Damage to Museum art traveling to Europe.

Mike represents primary, excess, and umbrella insurers as well as municipality risk pool groups. He provides guidance in drafting manuscript policies, rescinding policies for fraud or misrepresentation, issuing reservation of rights on complex coverage cases, successfully bringing declaratory judgment actions on a vast array of coverage defenses, enforcing other insurance rights, defending bad faith actions against insurers, and, where appropriate, prosecuting subrogation.

Policies commonly involved include OCIP/CCIP Project Policies, Commercial General Liability Primary, Excess and Umbrella Policies, Occurrence and Claims Made Environmental Insurance Liability Policies, Professional Services E&O Policies, D&O Policies, Warehouse Legal Liability Policies, Motor Truck, Commercial Marine Liability Primary and Bumbershoot Policies, P&I Marine Liability Policies, Marine Terminal Operators Liability Policies, and municipality risk pool coverage agreements.

Case Examples:

• Construction Liability: Negligence of contractors, subcontractors, engineers and architects in construction projects (either under insured coverage or OCIP/CCIP programs) in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York, and Texas; owner and GC liability for multiple homicides by construction workers in Louisiana; defective construction of hospital in Hawaii; defective installation of pipe system under Mississippi river; defective installation of self-monitoring power transmission lines in northeast states; property damage, deaths and bodily injuries from power plant explosion in Connecticut.
• Environmental: Pollution liability from pipeline releases in Georgia and Alabama; chemical plant explosions in Georgia; liability for asbestos, Chinese drywall, perchloroethylene, battery waste and other hazardous waste in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
• Industrial Accidents: Death and serious bodily injury throughout Southeast from industrial operations, manufacturing, smelting plants, excavations, loads falling during hoisting operations, fires and explosions on oil drilling platforms in Gulf.
• Maritime: Maritime injuries to Longshore workers at ports in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, Jones Act Seamen and passenger injuries on commercial and private vessels on the high seas, Atlantic, Gulf, state territorial waters of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina; ship damage to bridge to Fripp Island, and ships damaging docks and seawalls in multiple states.
• Risk Pools: For the state of Georgia School Board Association Risk Pool, provided coverage guidance, drafted and issued reservation of rights, provided recommendations for modification of the terms of the risk pool coverage agreement, litigated against insurers when disputes arose as to the defense and/or indemnity obligations of the risk pool vs. insurers in situations where coverage overlapped for all or part of the same liability risk.
• Other: Professional liability of engineers in multiple states, train collision in Oregon; liability for libel, slander and trademark infringement; liability for rape, assaults and shootings in hotels, bars, parking lots and apartment buildings in multiple states; liability of directors and officers in private and non-profit enterprises and banks.

Michael represents clients in insurance litigation and liability defense involving freight forwarder liability, domestic intrastate and interstate motor truck carrier liability, ocean cargo liability, international air cargo liability and warehouse legal liability under Motor Truck Liability and Cargo Policies, Ocean Carrier and Air Carrier Cargo Policies, Transportation Risk Policies, and Warehouse Legal Liability Policies.

Case Examples:

• Collision Injuries: Death and other serious bodily injury due to automobile and motor carrier accidents in many states.
• In Transit: Damage to air, motor truck, and ocean cargo during loading, transit, and storage for international and domestic shipments involving through bills of lading; damage to main frame computer system in air transit to Amsterdam; loss to electrical turbine during transit in Texas; loss of mining equipment and cargo during ocean transit to South America.
• Warehousing: Contamination of goods in refrigerated warehouse storage in multiple states; theft of warehoused goods in multiple states; damage to goods and over and under liability of warehousing entities in multiple states.