Hartford Insurance Unit Loses in ‘Related Claims’ Drug-Test Suit

A Hartford Insurance Group Inc. unit must cover a lawsuit against a drug testing company alleging that poor quality control led to false positives, a federal court ruled.

The underlying suit wasn’t similar enough to an earlier case to qualify as a “related claim” that would be covered under an earlier policy issued to Avertest LLC by a Loews Corp. insurer, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a July 18 order.

Disagreements over whether claims are related for the purpose of insurance coverage frequently lead to litigation, as “relatedness” can determine which insurer is ...