Peter C. Netburn

Full Profile

Peter Netburn has over 35 years of experience mediating, arbitrating, trying and appealing insurance coverage and defense, bad faith, construction, surety and fidelity, environmental, business, complex and toxic tort, product liability and personal injury, and other general civil and commercial disputes. He handles matters throughout New England and beyond, and regularly litigates cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the country.

Peter represents and advises national and international property and casualty insurers, insurance claim administrators, risk managers and other insurance industry stakeholders in complex insurance coverage matters involving, toxic tort, asbestos, sexual abuse, professional liability, products liability, general liability, fidelity, directors’ and officers’, bad faith and other claims. He has extensive experience representing manufacturers and distributors of asbestos containing products in toxic tort cases, and managing such litigation, throughout New England and nationally. Peter represents national and multi-national companies with respect to corporate governance and insurance issues. He also handles investigations and claims in connection with financial institution bonds and commercial crime policies.

Peter also represents sureties in all aspects of bond claims, including negotiating project completion, takeover and termination agreements, handling payment bond claims and suits, and pursuing indemnity and salvage recoveries, including related bankruptcy proceedings. He handles premises liability claims and represents owners, general contractors and subcontractors in connection with construction-related disputes and litigation, including personal injury, defective workmanship and breach of contract claims.

Admissions

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• US District Courts for the Districts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire
• US Courts of Appeals for the First and Second Circuits

Education

• J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1985
• B.A., cum laude, State University of New York, 1982

Memberships

• American Bar Association (ABA)
  • Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section
  • Fidelity and Surety Law Committee
• Defense Research Institute (DRI)
  • Lawyers’ Professionalism and Ethics Committee
• Federal Bar Association, Massachusetts Chapter
  • Board Member
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association 

Experience

• Represented amicus before Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, considering whether Massachusetts Attorney General’s prior settlement precluded recovery of punitive damages under the wrongful death statute for claims brought decades later.
• Represented insurer before the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which rejected using a stipulated consent judgment from an underlying tort case as the basis for a bad faith damages award against the tortfeasor’s liability insurer.
• Defended insurer for manufacturing co-producer that sought to recover amounts paid to settle claims for product recall costs and expenses.
• Defended insurer where public utility company sought to recover defense, investigation and remediation costs incurred as a result of historical manufactured gas plant operations. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the insurance coverage claims.
• Defended insurer against coverage claims relating to allegations of negligent supervision involving sexual abuse of minors. The district court dismissed the insured’s claims and the dismissal was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
• Represented insurer in successful opposition to Application for Further Appellate Review to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court after Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed Superior Court’s application of Rhode Island law and affirmed the US Superior Court’s entry of summary judgment based on pollution exclusion and statute of limitations.
• Represented local industry representative before the District Court and the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit holding, affirmed by the US Supreme Court, that Massachusetts Attorney General’s advertising regulations unconstitutionally burdened interstate commerce.
• Secured a jury verdict finding no trigger of coverage for contamination at Federal Superfund site. The verdict was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
• Obtained summary judgment, affirmed on appeal, that full faith and credit must be given to Florida adult guardianship order in connection with wrongful removal of elderly woman to Massachusetts.
• Secured defense verdict for alleged manufacturer of naval equipment in asbestos personal injury action.
• Obtained summary judgment for truck repair shop finding no causation for decedent plaintiff’s asbestos related disease.
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of asbestos insulation distributor based upon the Rhode Island statute of repose.
• Secured declaratory judgment of no coverage, affirmed on appeal, that insured’s liability did not arise out of the use of a covered auto.
• Represented the insurer before the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, holding that the commercial auto policy must be reformed to reflect mutual mistake.

Publications

• Co-author, "It’s Not a Direct Loss, But Is It Covered Property? The Impact of Direct Loss and Owned/Covered Property Interpretations on Current Fidelity Claims," Fidelity Law Journal, November 2021
• Co-author, "Collusive Consent Judgment that was not Subjected to a Judicial Reasonableness Review is not the Basis for a Chapter 93A Damages Award,” Case note, Massachusetts Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, December 2020 and Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association, January/February 2021 Newsletters

Presentations

• Co-presenter, "It’s Not a Direct Loss, But Is It Covered Property? The Impact of Direct Loss and Owned/Covered Property Interpretations on Current Fidelity Claims," Annual Fidelity Law Association Conference, New York City, New York, November 2021