Chris N. Kolos

Chris N. Kolos focuses his practice on the defense of environmental contamination suits, CERCLA litigation, toxic substance exposure cases, and pharmaceutical, products liability, nursing home, assisted living facility, and many other types of personal injury cases. He has substantial experience defending cases involving industrial chemicals and asbestos. He also defends insurers in bad faith and insurance coverage cases. He has served as national coordinating counsel and regional trial counsel for several Fortune 500 companies.

Past cases include:

• summary judgment for an insurer in a declaratory judgment action holding that a vendor of a named insured is not an additional insured under a CGL policy where the vendor distributes and leases goods of the named insured but does not re-sell them
• summary judgment in a mesothelioma case on the grounds that a parent corporation was not liable for the alleged negligent acts of its subsidiary
• summary judgment in a declaratory judgment action for an insurer against two co-insurers regarding priority of coverage and the duty to defend a mutual insured in a battle over "other insurance" clauses in the respective policies
• summary judgment for an insurer in a bad faith case establishing a rule that where an insurance company timely pays a claim but fails to meet non-monetary conditions in an offer resulting in the loss of an opportunity to settle a claim filed against its insured that would exceed policy limits, that still does not establish bad faith as a matter of law
• summary judgment in a declaratory judgment action for an insurer based on the intentional acts/expected injury exclusion in a case alleging gross negligence which was “substantially certain” to result in injury
• summary judgment in a declaratory judgment action applying Florida law to a multi-state/multi-risk insurance policy issued in Ohio such as to bar the claim under Florida law - Wausau v. Baillie, 281 F.Supp.2d 1307 (M.D. Fla. 2002)
• summary judgment upholding an assumption of the risk/release of liability clause relative to a management training teamwork/physical challenge course
• a defense verdict in a mesothelioma case tried in Florida relative to automotive friction products
• an appeal that quashed an asbestos omnibus order which allowed for an accelerated trial of a living plaintiff with mesothelioma to be conducted within three months of the filing date and ordered the trial court to strictly enforce the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure with respect to a case being at issue and ready to be tried - Genuine Parts Company v. Parsons, 917 So.2d 419 (Fla. 3rd DCA 2006)
• summary judgment for an insurer in a declaratory judgment action holding that despite the fact that a golf cart is a motor vehicle under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine, a golf cart is not an "auto" under a business auto policy - Bailey v. Netherlands Insurance Company, 615 F.Supp.2d 1332 (M.D. Fla. 2009)
• a defense verdict representing a major food manufacturer of an admittedly defective product on the grounds that the defect was not the legal cause of the damages sustained