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Mealey's Reinsurance

  • April 16, 2026

    Captive Insurer Says Nonparty Claims Handler Dispute Falls Outside Of Arbitration

    DETROIT — A captive insurer filed a supplemental brief in Michigan federal court arguing that its dispute with a reinsurer and a claims handler over coverage for Legionnaires’ disease claims under a reinsurance agreement to which the claims handler is not a party presents a justiciable controversy that is not subject to a pending arbitration with its reinsurer after a judge ordered briefing on whether its declaratory claim against a nonparty is subject to arbitration or may proceed in court.

  • April 14, 2026

    Risk Pool Operator Voluntarily Dismisses Coverage Suit Tied To Abuse Case

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Three weeks after a reinsurer moved for dismissal on subject matter jurisdiction grounds, a municipal risk pool operator voluntarily dismissed with prejudice its declaratory judgment actionin which it sought reinsurance coverage for claims arising from an underlying lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a school employee and negligent supervision by a board of education.

  • April 14, 2026

    Parties Submit Joint Status Report In SEC Fraud Dispute With Insurance Mogul

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Pursuant to a North Carolina federal court order staying the case until sentencings in related criminal proceedings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, his advisory services company and its former executive filed a joint status report in the SEC’s suit accusing Lindberg and related parties of defrauding clients out of more than $75 million.

  • April 13, 2026

    Captive Insurance Firm Seeks Refund Of Allegedly Erroneous IRS Promoter Penalties

    SHERMAN, Texas — A tax firm filed an amended complaint in a Texas federal court, seeking to recover refunds and invalidate the Internal Revenue Service’s assessment and collection of promoter penalties based on its captive insurance advisory work, including divisible amounts it paid and additional sums the agency allegedly offset and misapplied to those penalties.

  • April 13, 2026

    Insurer Failed To Show Claims Manager’s Handling Caused Insurer To Sustain Damage

    NEW YORK — A New York County Supreme Court justice granted a claims management company’s motion to dismiss a reciprocal insurer’s complaint without prejudice because the insurer has not yet sustained damages as the insurer is required to provide a defense to an insured school district for underlying toxic exposure lawsuits until a determination on the applicability of the pollution exclusion is made.

  • April 13, 2026

    5th Circuit Panel Affirms In Part, Revives Reinsurance Breach Of Contract Claim

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded a Texas federal court’s ruling dismissing a breach of contract claim arising from the Vesttoo Ltd. collapse that covers three sections of a reinsurance intermediary authorization agreement (RIAA), holding that while the RIAA imposed no duty on a reinsurance broker to procure collateral documentation or comply with Texas insurance laws, a homeowners insurer plausibly alleged postplacement breaches of the broker’s administrative obligations, which the panel found ambiguous and not resolvable at the pleading stage.

  • April 10, 2026

    Reinsurer Removes Coverage Dispute Tied To Asbestos Claims To Federal Court

    CONCORD, N.H. — A reinsurer removed to New Hampshire federal court on diversity  jurisdiction grounds an amended suit brought by an insurer that ceded risk and alleges the reinsurer failed to pay more than $1.1 million under facultative reinsurance certificates tied to decades of asbestos-related claims against a valve manufacturer.

  • April 10, 2026

    Emergency Stay Of USDA Directive Denied In Dispute Over Crop Insurance Software

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia denied an emergency bid to halt a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) directive that would classify certain software payments as capped agent compensation under the federal crop insurance program, finding that a provider of agricultural insurance software failed to show that it would suffer imminent, irreparable harm before the dispute can be resolved on the merits.

  • April 10, 2026

    Judge: Retirees Have Standing To Challenge PRT But Didn’t State Claims

    SEATTLE — Adding to the mixed record in a string of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to pension risk transfers (PRTs), a Washington federal judge granted dismissal of the putative class suit with leave to amend upon concluding that Weyerhaeuser Co. retirees had standing but failed to plausibly state their claims.

  • April 08, 2026

    Government Claims Successive Motions Are Improper In $6.5M Tax Shelter Dispute

    PITTSBURGH — The U.S. government urged a Pennsylvania federal court to reject a Pittsburgh-based corporation’s renewed bid for summary judgment and dismissal of the government’s counterclaim seeking to enforce more than $6.5 million in promoter penalties tied to the company’s administration of a purported captive insurance program, arguing that the motions are procedurally barred and that binding precedent forecloses the corporation’s Seventh Amendment challenge to the Internal Revenue Code’s prepayment and administrative assessment structure.

  • April 07, 2026

    Arbitration Award Confirmed In Reinsurance Case; Motions To Seal Granted In Part

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge denied a food-processing company’s petition to vacate a reinsurance arbitration award and granted a reinsurer’s cross-motion to confirm the award, finding no basis for vacatur under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA); in a separate order, the judge granted in part and denied in part motions by both parties to seal filings, holding that the materials are judicial documents subject to a strong presumption of public access and permitting only limited sealing of contractual materials with redacted disclosure required for arbitration transcripts.

  • April 01, 2026

    Reinsurance Case Remanded As Service-Of-Suit Clause Bars State Court Removal

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 31 remanded to state court a complaint filed by the Pennsylvania Insurance commissioner over unpaid reinsurance obligations arising from a multimillion-dollar environmental settlement and denied a motion to strike supporting declarations, holding that a London Market service-of-suit clause waived removal and required the case to proceed in the forum selected by the liquidator of an insolvent insurer.

  • April 01, 2026

    3 More Rulings Buck Dismissal Trend In ERISA Forfeiture Cases

    Case law in the wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits concerning retirement plan use of forfeitures continues to be mixed; although the majority of decisions on dismissal motions continue to favor defendants, including in seven dismissal rulings handed down in the last two months, that same period brought three rulings that allowed cases to continue.

  • April 01, 2026

    Insurers Deny Liability In Reinsurance Coverage Dispute Over School Abuse Claims

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — Two insurers filed answers in a Vermont federal court to a captive insurer’s complaint alleging they breached reinsurance agreements and acted in bad faith by refusing to reimburse tens of millions of dollars in defense costs and settlement payments tied to lawsuits over alleged abuse and neglect at a West Virginia boarding school.

  • April 01, 2026

    Expanded Class Complaint Alleges Nondisclosure Of PHL’s Poor Financial Status

    CHICAGO — Policyholders filed an amended putative class action complaint in an Illinois federal court, adding 11 more named plaintiffs and expanding allegations that State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., which marketed and serviced life insurance and annuity products issued by PHL Variable Insurance Co. pursuant to a distribution agreement, failed to disclose PHL’s financial deterioration, including its use of affiliated reinsurance transactions, prior to its placement into administrative supervision and rehabilitation proceedings that resulted in limitations on policyholder benefits.

  • March 30, 2026

    Microcaptive Structure Declared Noneconomic; Underpayment Penalties Upheld

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Applying a recently established framework governing the economic substance doctrine and disclosure requirements in microcaptive insurance cases, a U.S. Tax Court judge held that a purported captive arrangement failed both prongs of the economic substance test and sustained a 40% accuracy-related penalty for a nondisclosed noneconomic substance transaction.

  • March 27, 2026

    Reinsurer Moves To Dismiss Coverage Suit Tied To Underlying Abuse Case

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A reinsurer moved in Connecticut federal court to dismiss a declaratory judgment action brought by a municipal risk pool operator seeking coverage for claims arising from an underlying lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a school employee and negligent supervision by a board of education, arguing that the dispute is premature and nonjusticiable because any indemnity obligation depends on unresolved liability and contingent future payments.

  • March 27, 2026

    Homeowners Sue California FAIR Plan Association Over Wildfire Claim Handling

    LOS ANGELES — Joining a wave of lawsuits alleging that the California FAIR Plan Association (CFPA) improperly processes wildfire-related property insurance claims related to the 2025 Eaton and Palisades wildfires, two individuals who own a residential property filed a complaint in a California state court alleging that CFPA underpaid and mishandled their claim through unlawful claims practices.

  • March 25, 2026

    Retirees Will Ask D.C. Circuit To Revive PRT Case Against Alcoa USA Corp.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — On March 24, Alcoa USA Corp. retirees filed a notice that they will attempt to revive their putative class challenge to pension risk transfers (PRTs) in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals; the appeal will be the second in a string of similar cases filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • March 24, 2026

    Insurer Argues Arbitrator Dispute Is Noncommercial, Seeks Remand To State Court

    NEW YORK — An insurance exchange filed a remand motion in a New York federal court, arguing that its suit seeking to disqualify a reinsurer-appointed arbitrator based on his prior representation presents a noncommercial, nonarbitrable dispute over attorney fiduciary duties that belongs in state court, not federal court.

  • March 19, 2026

    COMMENTARY: America 250: A History Of Insurance & Insurance Coverage Law & Litigation In The United States, Part 2

    By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Peter J. Lewis  

  • March 19, 2026

    Insurer Showed Issues Of Fact Exist On Missing Reinsurance Agreements, Panel Says

    CHICAGO — The First District Illinois Appellate Court reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a reinsurer after determining that issues of fact exist regarding the existence of the reinsurance agreement under which the insurer seeks reimbursement for costs related to its insured’s asbestos liabilities.

  • March 18, 2026

    Reinsurance Broker Seeks Transfer-Related Fees In Contract Breach Counterclaim

    NEW YORK — A reinsurance broker asserted a breach of contract counterclaim in a New York federal court alleging that a reciprocal insurance exchange breached the parties’ broker services agreement’s (BSA) forum selection clause by initially commencing litigation in a Pennsylvania federal court, seeking recovery of attorney fees and litigation costs incurred in enforcing the clause and transferring the action.

  • March 18, 2026

    Software Firm Seeks Emergency Stay Of USDA Reclassification Of Agent Pay Cap

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A provider of agricultural insurance software asked a District of Columbia federal court to stay a directive issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s crop insurance regulator reclassifying payments by insurers to third-party software providers for policy administration software as agent compensation while it seeks to set aside the bulletin under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), arguing that the change unlawfully reverses longstanding policy and would force the company out of business.

  • March 17, 2026

    Farmer Files Suit Over Voided Crop Insurance Coverage, Claim Denials

    SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A South Dakota farmer filed a complaint in a South Dakota federal court against his federally reinsured crop insurer, seeking monetary damages and reformation of his Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) policy, alleging that the insurer improperly voided his coverage and denied indemnity for a 2017 crop loss following years of arbitration and prior federal litigation over whether his spouse held a substantial beneficial interest in his insured farming operation.