Ms. Blanco-Méndez has over 14 years of experience litigating at trial and appellate levels in local and federal courts, where she has represented a wide range of clients in civil and commercial cases. Her practice focuses on insurance defense, coverage disputes and advocating on behalf of insurers and insureds. As a result, she has amassed a wealth of knowledge in litigation involving complex coverage questions regarding property, professional liability, casualty policies and fidelity bonds.
Ms. Blanco-Méndez is particularly well-versed in the professional liability defense of construction and design professionals in cases before the American Arbitration Association, Puerto Rico’s Department of Consumer Affairs, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As part of Ms. Blanco-Méndez’ insurance coverage practice, she successfully argued that an incident was excluded under each of the requisite prongs of the Abuse or Molestation Exclusion in a Commercial General Liability Policy. Further, she convinced the Court to reject a magistrate judge’s finding regarding the subject insurer’s duty to defend, by demonstrating that -on their own-the allegations unrelated to the alleged sexual assault would not trigger the policy at issue, thus obtaining total dismissal of the claims against her client. See Grasis v. WIN Access, Inc., 13-1226 (PAD) (D.P.R. 2017).
In a case where she represented the insured, Ms. Blanco-Méndez obtained the dismissal of the claims against her client based on waivers that contained a forum selection clause. To that end, she successfully argued that Plaintiffs’ agreement to the clause was not obtained through fraud or overreaching, and there was no public policy advising against their enforcement. See Montgomery v. ACE Ins. Co., 16-2073 (MEL) (D.P.R. 2018).
More recently, Ms. Blanco-Méndez has defended several local and international insurers in some of Puerto Rico’s largest property insurance claims as a result of Hurricanes Irma and María, leading their litigation teams during trial, mediation, and arbitration proceedings.
Ms. Blanco-Méndez is also experienced in employment law matters. In that vein, she obtained the dismissal of a claim under the Age Discrimination of Employment Act by arguing that Plaintiff’s perception of unfair treatment could not be ascribed to discriminatory motivation merely because he belonged to a protected class, and that his suspicions of discrimination were no substitute for actual evidence of prejudice. See Pierzchajio v. Northwestern Selecta, Inc., 17-01682 (PAD) (D.P.R. 2019).
Ms. Blanco-Méndez is a Shareholder at SCVR. She joined the firm in 2010.