2BInformed: Engaging with EPA, OSHA’s New Regulation, and Asbestos
As 2024 rapidly approaches, we look back at some of the key decisions, trends, and developments impacting the U.S. insurance industry in 2023 and look ahead at some trends and cases to watch in 2024. Insurers continue to...more
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, September 15, 2022 - Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Onebeacon Ins. Co., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 25863 - Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company (“Fireman’s Fund”) issued three excess...more
The case between Equitas and Municipal Mutual Insurance (MMI) has been discontinued, bringing to an end a dispute that was due to be heard by the UK Supreme Court this week. Last year’s ruling by the Court of Appeal therefore...more
The Second Circuit has reversed a $64 million judgment against Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. in the latest ruling in a long-running dispute related to primary and excess policies that Utica Mutual Insurance Co. issued to a...more
We previously posted about the yearslong reinsurance dispute between Utica Mutual Insurance Co. (the cedent) and Century Indemnity Co. (the reinsurer), involving Utica’s claims that Century breached two reinsurance...more
The plaintiffs, U.S. Fire Insurance Co. and North River Insurance Co., issued 12 umbrella and excess umbrella liability policies for a combined coverage of $244 million to a manufacturer of respiratory protection equipment...more
The case involved a “second layer special casualty excess agreement of reinsurance” under which reinsurers General Reinsurance Corp. and SCOR Reinsurance Co. agreed to cover a certain amount in excess of Chicago Insurance...more
In the first judgment to provide guidance on the allocation of mesothelioma liabilities at a reinsurance level, the Court of Appeal in Equitas Insurance Limited v Municipal Mutual Insurance Limited [2019] EWCA Civ 718 has...more
In a closely watched case, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales has given reinsurers a win with respect to reinsurance claims related to mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases....more
The Court of Appeal’s highly anticipated judgment in Equitas v MMI has been handed down today (17 April 2019). The decision is the latest ruling in the long running saga and represents an important victory for reinsurers....more
This is the fourth of five articles addressing climate change lawsuits in the context of (re)insurance. This article explores the ways in which (re)insurers, in dealing with an emerging body of climate change lawsuits, may...more
A Michigan federal court declined to bifurcate a case involving a contract dispute between a ceding insurer, Amerisure, and its reinsurer, Transatlantic Re, in a case arising from underlying asbestos claims dating back to the...more
The Northern District of New York declined to reconsider a September 2018 decision on competing motions for partial summary judgment we previously reported on in a long-running reinsurance dispute related to asbestos...more
In 2013, Utica Mutual Insurance Company (the cedent) filed a complaint alleging that Century Indemnity Company (the reinsurer) (1) breached two reinsurance certificates executed between the parties covering the years 1973 and...more
The Second Circuit has partially vacated summary judgment rulings in a case involving the reinsurance of asbestos-related risks. ...more
The Situation: This past month, the New York Court of Appeals considered whether New York law imposes a "rule of construction" or "strong presumption" that a reinsurance contract's limit of liability provision caps the...more
In recent years, we have commented on the various retroactive reinsurance transactions that Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiary, National Indemnity Company (“NICO”), have entered into with ceding insurers regarding coverage...more
In an action involving claims under facultative reinsurance for the reinsurance of asbestos risks, the reinsurer sought discovery of documents concerning the allocation of losses among the reinsurers on the program, and...more
A court has denied a motion to reconsider its decision denying a reinsurer’s (Century Indemnity Co.) motion to compel an insurer (Travelers Casualty and Surety Company) to produce certain documents in a case in which...more
In Global Reins. Corp. of Am. v. Century Indem. Co., 2016 WL 7156549 (Dec. 8, 2016), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit asked New York’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, to provide guidance as to...more
A federal district court in California recently dismissed a lawsuit brought by a cedent against its reinsurer for lack of a personal jurisdiction, where the reinsurer’s only contacts with the state derived from the fact that...more
R&Q Reinsurance Company issued a facultative reinsurance certificate to St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, which reinsured a policy issued by St. Paul to Walter E. Campbell, Co. The broker who placed the certificate...more
On August 14, 2015, a federal district court in New York entered an order allowing a petition to confirm an arbitration award to be filed in redacted form with the arbitration award to be filed under seal. The case is pending...more
A federal judge in New York has denied reinsurers’ motions for relief from a prior judgment. The reinsurers, Equitas Insurance Limited and Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, argued that they were entitled to judicial...more
A New York appellate court affirmed the denial of summary judgment but with modifications. New Hampshire Insurance Company (“New Hampshire”) together with other insurers, settled with Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation...more