Berkley Insurance Company v. Weddle Law PLLC

Background

Weddle Law PLLC, the defendant and counterclaim plaintiff, moved to compel Berkley Insurance Company, the plaintiff and counterclaim defendant, to produce two sets of documents concerning Berkley’s claim investigation and loss reserves. Weddle’s counterclaim included bad-faith allegations in connection with a breach-of-contract claim and sought consequential damages and attorneys’ fees.

Ruling

The court granted Weddle’s motion to compel in part. For documents Berkley withheld based on attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, the court ordered Berkley to submit unredacted copies to the court for ex parte, in camera review by November 14, 2025. These terms mean that the court would review the documents privately and outside the parties’ presence; the order did not direct Berkley to produce those documents to Weddle at that stage.

The court separately ordered Berkley to produce three documents concerning loss reserves to Weddle by November 14, 2025. The court explained that reserve information is relevant under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1), which generally allows discovery of nonprivileged information relevant to a party’s claim or defense. The court also noted that, although New York does not recognize a separate bad-faith cause of action, courts allow bad-faith allegations to be included in a breach-of-contract claim.

Effect of the Order

The order required Berkley to take two forms of action: submit the privilege- or work-product-disputed documents to the court for private review and produce the three loss-reserve documents to Weddle. The opinion states only that the motion to compel was granted in part; it does not provide a separate disposition for any remaining request.