Case Updates

On March 10, 2025, Reid Collins won a unanimous reversal by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that will allow JW Aluminum Company’s (“JWA”) claim for over $100 million related to insurance coverage for losses resulting from a catastrophic accident at one of the company’s production facilities to move forward.

JWA is one of the largest producers of flat-rolled aluminum in the United States. On August 4, 2020, a small splash of molten aluminum from a production line at JWA’s Goose Creek, South Carolina plant kicked off a chain of events that nearly destroyed the facility. The molten metal landed on a beam supporting the facility’s roof and ignited highly flammable aluminum dust. The fire then spread to the roof, grew, and moved towards gas lines. To avoid a major explosion, JWA shut down gas and electric service, causing molten aluminum to harden inside the company’s equipment, rendering it inoperable. The facility also sustained water damage during hours of firefighting efforts that followed. Although no workers or first responders were injured, the incident caused tens of millions of dollars of property damage and hundreds of millions in lost profits.

JWA’s insurers argued that they were only required to pay for a small fraction of these losses under a policy endorsement that reduced coverage for “direct physical loss or harm caused by heat from Molten Material” from the policy limit of $250 million to just $10 million. The District Court for the District of South Carolina granted the insurers’ motion for summary judgment on the issue, finding that the endorsement unambiguously applied. The Fourth Circuit reversed, finding that the endorsement was ambiguous in several respects and instructing the District Court to interpret the policy “liberally in favor of the insured and strictly against the insurer[s]” on remand.

Congratulations to the Reid Collins team – Craig Boneau, Scott Saldana, Dylan Jones, Morgan Menchaca, and Julia DiFiore.

The Fourth Circuit case is captioned JW Aluminum Co. v. ACE American Insurance Co., et al., No. 24-1229 (4th Cir.). A copy of the decision can be downloaded by clicking here.

Press coverage:

• Click here to read “4th Circ. Reverses $10M Coverage Cap For Aluminum Co” at Law360.com

On January 2, 2025, a panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that had dismissed claims brought by Reid Collins’ client North American Sugar Industries, Inc. (“NAS”) under the Helms-Burton Act.

Prior to the Communist Revolution, NAS owned and operated a port in Cuba that the Castro regime confiscated. Under the Helms-Burton Act’s private right of action, NAS is asserting trafficking claims against a Chinese wind-energy company and a group of shipping and logistics companies that engaged in a scheme to traffic in NAS’s confiscated port, including by shipping wind turbines through the Port of Miami en route to Cuba. Before Reid Collins took over the case on appeal, the District Court dismissed all claims for lack of personal jurisdiction based on its holding that the only relevant conduct occurred in Cuba. In a published and precedential opinion, the Eleventh Circuit rejected this narrow view of what constitutes trafficking under the Act and instead endorsed the broad interpretation that NAS advanced on appeal, including that unlawful trafficking can encompass activities outside of Cuba. In remanding the action for further proceedings, the Eleventh Circuit additionally found that the District Court misapplied the legal and factual standards that apply to a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Congratulations to the Reid Collins trial team – Craig Boneau, Ryan Goldstein, Scott Saldana, Rob LaCroix, and Aaron Brown.

The Eleventh Circuit case is captioned North American Sugar Industries, Inc. v. Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd., et al., No. 23-10126 (11th Cir.).

A copy of the decision can be downloaded by clicking here.