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Telecom company owed no defense in terrorism-related suit - Business Insurance Skip to content Register for free Search Search Log In Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2026 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2026 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2026 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2026 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Telecom company owed no defense in terrorism-related suit by Richard Sine Coverage Disputes , P/C Insurers , Terrorism Chubb , The Travelers Cos. Sep 15, 2026 Travelers and a unit of Chubb do not have to defend Ericsson against lawsuits accusing the telecommunications company of funding terrorist attacks in Iraq, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Thursday. The decision in Travelers Property Casualty Company of America v. Ericsson Incorporated affirms a district court’s summary judgment win for Travelers and Ace American Insurance, closing off Ericsson’s bid for coverage in two underlying lawsuits filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act. In 2022, more than 500 U.S. service members and civilians who were terror victims claimed that Stockholm-based Ericsson paid protection money to terrorist factions that controlled swaths of Iraq to keep the company’s operations and cell towers safe. The money aided a campaign of kidnapping, torture and attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the victims alleged. The suit is still pending. At issue was whether the commercial general liability policies Travelers and ACE issued to Ericsson from 2003 to 2014 required the insurers to defend the company. Those policies cover injuries caused by an “occurrence,” defined as an accident. Travelers and Ace argued the underlying suits describe intentional conduct, not an accident, so no duty to defend arose. The district court agreed, and the Fifth Circuit found no error. Applying Texas’s “eight corners” rule, which limits courts to comparing the complaint against the policy language, the panel held that the underlying suits allege Ericsson’s payments were volitional and that any resulting harm followed from that intentional conduct. The underlying complaints describe deliberate payments and efforts to conceal them, the panel found. The court dismissed Ericsson’s reliance on scattered uses of the word “recklessly” in the complaints, noting most of those references either quoted SEC findings or modified the phrase “conscious disregard,” which Texas law treats as volitional conduct rather than an accident. The court also rejected Ericsson’s argument that the company did not know that payments to intermediaries would ultimately reach terrorist groups, finding that the payoffs were intentional nonetheless. The court had earlier stayed a ruling on the insurers’ separate duty to indemnify Ericsson, finding that question unripe pending further developments in the underlying terrorism suits. The Anti-Terrorism Act allows terror victims to seek damages from parties that support terrorists as well as the terrorists themselves. About 30 new suits were filed under the act last year, according to the law firm Skadden, including suits that targeted finance and media companies. 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