Patent Infringement: Successful Litigation Stays the "Course"
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota denying defendant SUNZ Insurance Co.’s motion to compel arbitration of crossclaims asserted by...more
This case arose from an interpleader action in the federal district court in Minnesota. Benchmark Insurance Co. appointed Sunz Insurance Co. to underwrite and issue large-scale deductible workers’ compensation insurance...more
When can you compel arbitration of a putative class action? The law is developing quickly and still doesn’t provide a crystal clear answer. The Ninth Circuit recently weighed in on two cases examining what happens when the...more
An insured filed suit in a Florida district court for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the defendant-carriers’ handling of claims made under the insured’s disability insurance policies....more
AmGUARD Insurance Company ("AmGUARD") was ordered to comply with a plaintiff’s request for production in a worker's compensation case for forty-one medical reports of other, unrelated patients drafted by the same doctor...more
The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently determined that non-signatory insureds could not be compelled to arbitrate their claims under an arbitration clause in an agency agreement where the insureds did not obtain a...more
A district court judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana has issued an order attempting to resolve the apparent tension created by Louisiana law barring compulsory arbitration provisions in...more
In a recent dispute involving a crop insurance policy, the Texas Supreme Court held that an independent insurance agency could not compel arbitration of certain claims brought against it in state court by an insured (JJ...more
The recent decision of Nielsen Contracting, Inc. v. Applied Underwriters, Inc., 232 Cal.Rptr.3d 282 (Cal. App. 4 Dist. 2018) provides a cautionary tale of the failure to comply with insurance regulatory filing requirements of...more
This case concerned a coverage dispute between Technical Security Integration Inc. and its insurer, Philadelphia Indemnity. The District Court for the District of Oregon denied Philadelphia Indemnity’s motion to compel...more
This case arose from an accident at the General Motors plant in Kansas City, Kansas, where an electrician employed by Capital Electric Construction Company, Inc. was severely injured due to negligence by Solaris Power...more
The case involved a dispute between the parties to a Reinsurance Participation Agreement (RPA). Defendants moved to compel arbitration, citing the Federal Arbitration Act and a provision in the RPA agreeing to resolve “[a]ll...more
In State Farm General Insurance Co. v. Watts Regulator Co. (No. B271236, filed 11/30/17), a California appeals court held that a manufacturer could not compel intercompany arbitration of an insurer’s subrogation claim,...more
In 2011, Top’s Personnel entered into a reinsurance agreement with Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Company (“AUCRA”), and several years later executed a promissory note (“the Note”) in favor of a related entity,...more
Applying the doctrine of judicial estoppel, a district court refused to compel arbitration finding that the arbitration clause in a reinsurance agreement was unenforceable under a Virginia statute that voided a mandatory...more
A California appellate court has upheld an order denying a motion to compel arbitration due to the possibility of conflicting rules, finding that, when a contract is silent on choice of law, California procedural rules, not...more
Following up on our recent article, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Insurers face hidden risks when defending claims and protecting confidential reinsurance information at the same time, published in the August 2017 issue of...more
A federal district court has required Scottsdale Insurance Company to arbitrate a claim against Kinsale Insurance Company based on an arbitration clause in a contract between Kinsale and its insured – a contract to which...more
National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA provided Seneca Family of Agencies with workers’ compensation and employers’ liability insurance for Seneca’s operations in California from 2004 to 2013. The parties...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
In the most recent decision in an ongoing dispute between MF Global Holdings Ltd. and its (re)insurers, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Allied World to post a $15 million bond before the...more
A New York court compelled the arbitration of a claim under a reinsurance agreement, rejecting the plaintiff reinsurer’s claim that the reinsurance policy is void because the reinsured issued an underlying insurance policy...more
Under Alabama law, “arbitration may be compelled under the doctrine of ‘intertwining’ where arbitrable and nonarbitrable claims are so closely related that the party to a controversy subject to arbitration is equitably...more
The background of this case is as follows. State Insurance Commissioner Brian Maynard, acting as liquidator of the failed Kentucky Health Cooperative (“KYHC”), filed suit in Kentucky state court against CGI Technologies and...more
The case involves a dispute over Utica Mutual Insurance Company’s claims for reinsurance proceeds from Munich Re. One of Munich Re’s defenses in the litigation asserts that Utica “strategically orchestrated a settlement...more