Cases

A magistrate judge of the Western District of Texas granted in part an insured property owner’s motion to compel discovery against Zurich American Insurance Company in a coverage dispute arising from an insurance claim, holding that the insurer waived numerous objections by failing to substantively defend them and that its interrogatory and production responses were incomplete. The magistrate judge ordered Zurich to provide full narrative answers to multiple interrogatories concerning its coverage determinations, application of a flood deductible, and asserted affirmative defenses, rejecting the insurer’s reliance on promises of future supplementation or preferences for deposition testimony. The magistrate judge also compelled production of documents responsive to several requests for production, including non-privileged materials related to coverage evaluations and policy application communications, while permitting redaction of privileged or work-product materials subject to a compliant privilege log under Rule 26(b)(5). The court denied the motion as moot as to the underwriting file after supplementation and emphasized that boilerplate objections, unsupported relevancy challenges, and vague invocations of privilege are insufficient to avoid discovery obligations in insurance coverage litigation.