David E. Heiss | Shareholder

David E. Heiss is a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of Fisher Kanaris P.C. Mr. Heiss' practice is principally concentrated in the area of insurance coverage. He assists several first-party carriers at the policy drafting, claims investigation and litigation stages. Mr. Heiss provides legal opinions on a broad-range of property and liability insurance issues, including: agent/broker activities, all risk, asbestos removal, bad faith, builder's risk, boiler and machinery, business interruption, collapse, installation floater coverages, contamination, fine arts claims, extended coverages and reinsurance disputes. He also has extensive experience in the litigation of large complex first-party property coverage disputes, including numerous disputes in excess of $10,000,000. Mr. Heiss' involvement includes experience in all phases of litigation, including numerous matters which he has tried to verdict.

He has considerable experience in the handling of large property damage losses and the complex cross-discipline problems that arise from these claims. For example, Mr. Heiss recently obtained summary judgment on behalf of a property insurer which was affirmed by the Ohio Supreme Court where the insured sought to ignore its reported values and apply the policy on a blanket basis. He has also recently obtained summary judgment on behalf of property insurers on property damage and time element issues resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Heiss also obtained summary judgment on behalf of property insurers on claims involving Hurricane Marilyn and the Nisqually Earthquake which were affirmed on appeal by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, respectively.

Mr. Heiss successfully represents insureds in defense of claims covered under comprehensive general liability policies and professional liability policies, and has defended insureds against personal injury claims involving catastrophic injury. Recently, he obtained summary judgment on behalf of a design engineering firm against claims brought by an injured construction worker who claimed in excess of $10,000,000 for permanent and uncorrectable injuries.

He also practices in the area of loss recovery and has successfully prosecuted claims of subrogated insurers as well as the uninsured interests of their insureds, which vary from Fortune 500 companies to small limited partnerships. Typical cases involve the analysis of complex tort, contractual, and Uniform Commercial Code issues. Mr. Heiss has successfully resolved numerous cases resulting in six-figure recoveries for his clients.

Mr. Heiss has been invited on multiple occasions to speak on the subject of property insurance coverage, including coverage issues which arose out of the September 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.