Staffing Agency Sues Insurer for Defense Against Nurses’ COVID-19 Claims

NEW YORK — An Alabama staffing agency has sued Federal Insurance Co. (Chubb) for defense against a lawsuit accusing it of recruiting nurses to assist in the COVID-19 crisis in New York, and then forcing them to work with infected patients without masks or gowns.

In an Oct. 2 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Krucial Staffing LLC says the insurer wrongly refused to allow the agency to keep its own defense counsel, refused to reimburse defense costs it has already incurred in the underlying lawsuit, and refusing to apply Krucial’s out-of-pocket …