Mealey's Reinsurance

  • September 16, 2026

    Microcaptive Owners Seek Reversal Of Tax Court Determinations, Penalties

    NEW ORLEANS — The owners of two microcaptive insurance arrangements ask the Fifth Circuit to overturn U.S. Tax Court rulings that disallowed deductions after finding that the arrangements did not constitute insurance for federal tax purposes and subsequently imposed penalties, arguing in part that the Tax Court improperly displaced state insurance regulation in violation of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which bars federal interference with state insurance regulation without clear congressional authorization, particularly because the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) had approved the reinsurance pool used by the captives as a risk-distribution arrangement.

  • September 16, 2026

    Reinsurer Must Cover School Abuse Claims Under Single-Occurrence Rule

    LOS ANGELES — A California state judge granted summary judgment to a school district risk pool and rejected a reinsurer’s attempt to avoid coverage liability for sexual abuse that occurred outside an agreed coverage period, holding that the governing agreements treat multiple victims of the same perpetrator as part of a single “‘occurrence’” arising at the time of the first abuse, despite the reinsurer’s arguments that each victim constituted a separate “‘occurrence’” and that the later abuse fell outside the policy period.

  • September 16, 2026

    Insurer Says Counterclaims Fail In $31M Pollution Settlement Dispute

    CLEVELAND — An insurer seeking to avoid reimbursing a reinsurer’s $31 million environmental settlement told an Ohio federal court that the reinsurer’s counterclaims for breach of contract, equitable subrogation and unjust enrichment fail because the payment arose from the reinsurer’s separate guaranty obligations rather than liabilities under the reinsured policy and because the reinsurer lacks contractual rights to enforce the facultative reinsurance certificates.

  • September 11, 2026

    Risk Pool Claims Captive Reinsurer Mismanaged Millions In Capital Contributions

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — A governmental risk management pool alleges in a complaint filed in Vermont federal court that for more than 15 years, a member-owned captive reinsurance company misused and misallocated tens of millions of dollars in capital contributions and premium payments by allegedly subsidizing other members’ losses and failing to properly credit the risk pool’s capital accounts, bringing claims for contractual, fiduciary and anticipatory breaches.

  • September 11, 2026

    Reinsurance Payments Defeat Uber’s RICO Standing, Law Firm Contends

    PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia law firm accused by Uber Technologies Inc. and Federal Express Corp. (FedEx) of participating in a scheme to litigate fraudulent personal injury claims seeks partial summary judgment in a Pennsylvania federal court on Uber’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims, arguing that the ride-sharing company lacks standing under the because the underlying litigation costs were paid by an insurer and any claimed loss arising through a separate reinsurance arrangement is too attenuated to satisfy RICO’s injury and proximate causation requirements.

  • September 10, 2026

    Arbitration Ordered In Dispute Over Improperly Canceled Crop Insurance Policy

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama federal magistrate judge granted a crop insurer’s request to stay litigation and compel arbitration, agreeing with the provider’s contention that a dispute over an erroneously canceled crop insurance policy is subject to mandatory arbitration under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (FCIA).

  • September 09, 2026

    Parties Indicate Forthcoming Resolution In Insurer’s Suit Against Ex-Underwriter

    MIAMI — An insurer and the insurer’s former underwriter stated in a joint status report filed in a Florida federal court that they are holding the remainder of discovery in abeyance as they negotiate a potential resolution to their suit arising from the ex-underwriter’s conduct that the insurer alleges included greatly exceeding his authority by executing a facultative retrocession agreement to cover a risk of more than $44 million.

  • September 04, 2026

    Captive Reinsurer Seeks $1.2M In Payment From 3 Retrocession Agreements

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A captive reinsurance company has filed a breach of contract suit against a property and casualty insurance company in a Delaware state court, alleging that the insurer failed to pay three invoices totaling $1,249,078.78 stemming from three retrocession agreements.

  • September 04, 2026

    Colorado Federal Judge Adds ‘No Standing’ Ruling In Wave Of PRT Cases

    DENVER — Saying there is a lack of “controlling authority to guide the Court’s analysis,” a Colorado federal judge found that retirees lacked standing to bring a putative class case that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; he therefore granted dismissal without prejudice of all the claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.

  • September 02, 2026

    Homeowner Insurer, Reinsurance Broker Seek Entry Of Protective Order

    DALLAS — A homeowner insurer and a reinsurance broker filed a joint motion for a protective order in a Texas federal court, seeking the ability to mark as confidential certain forthcoming discovery materials that they consider instrumental to their business practices or containing information not known to the public, in litigation over the remaining breach of contract claim in the insurer’s suit over losses tied to the Vesttoo Ltd. collapse.

  • September 01, 2026

    Dismissal Denied In Dispute Over $100M Allegedly Depleted From Reinsurance Trust

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Aug. 31 denied dismissal to a reinsurer and other parties that an insurer accused of improperly depleting a reinsurance trust account by more than $100 million, finding that the insurer has standing to sue because the trust agreement provided it with the right to withdraw trust assets at any time.

  • September 01, 2026

    Watchdog Group Appeals Ruling That Permitted FAIR Plan Assessment Pass-Through

    LOS ANGELES — A consumer research and advocacy organization appealed a California state court ruling denying its petition for a writ of mandate challenging Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s FAIR Plan assessment pass-through bulletins, which the court held did not violate a statute governing the allocation of writings, expenses, profits and losses among FAIR Plan member insurers because the statute does not regulate insurers’ subsequent financial dealings with policyholders.

  • August 31, 2026

    Failure To State Claim Dooms Agent’s Crop Insurance Declaratory Judgment Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge dismissed a crop insurance agency’s declaratory judgment suit against the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) over reduced commissions for failure to state a claim despite finding that the agency had Article III standing and that sovereign immunity did not bar the action.

  • August 28, 2026

    4th Circuit To Hear 1st Argument In Appeals From Wave Of PRT Cases

    RICHMOND, Va. — The most advanced of the appeals springing from a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) cases filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act is in the Fourth Circuit, where oral argument with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) participating as amicus curiae is scheduled for Sept. 16.

  • August 28, 2026

    Insurer Must Exhaust Policy Limits Before Joint Insurance Fund Pays Settlement

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of a joint insurance fund and denied summary judgment to a commercial auto insurer in a dispute stemming from a multimillion-dollar settlement of a personal injury lawsuit involving a municipally owned ambulance, holding that the commercial insurer’s $1 million commercial auto policy and $3 million excess liability policy must be exhausted before public funds available through the joint insurance fund may be used to satisfy the settlement.

  • August 27, 2026

    Tenn. Insurance Department, IRS Stipulate To Dismissal In Microcaptive Tax Case

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The United States and Tennessee’s Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) stipulated to the dismissal with prejudice of a case through which the Internal Revenue Service sought enforcement of summonses it issued requesting the procurement of tax documents from the Tennessee agency as part of a continuing investigation into microcaptive insurance companies and potential tax evasion.

  • August 25, 2026

    Joint Status Report Reveals Disagreements In Row Over Award To Insolvent Insurer

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — On remand after the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of the confirmation of an arbitral award in favor of insolvency practitioners for a Dutch insurer in liquidation while leaving open the enforcement of the Dutch judgment confirming the award, the parties filed a joint status report in North Carolina federal court disagreeing on the necessity of additional briefing.

  • August 21, 2026

    Reinsurance Broker, Insurance Exchange Stipulate Dismissal Of Brokerage Fee Case

    NEW YORK — A reinsurance broker and an insurance exchange on Aug. 20 stipulated to dismissal in a New York federal court of their case in which the exchange sued the broker over $101,646.20 in brokerage fees the broker deducted from claim payments held in a fiduciary account.

  • August 21, 2026

    Farmers Seek Confirmation Of $1.6M Award Against Crop Insurer, Agent

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A farm general partnership seeks confirmation of an arbitration award in Kentucky federal court after a crop insurer and agent failed to pay more than $1.6 million in indemnity and accrued interest stemming from the mishandling of the partnership’s request for an actuarial change, which left it without coverage when its canola crop sustained weather-related damage.

  • August 20, 2026

    Captive Reinsurer Seeks Intervention In $5M Reinsurance Default Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A captive reinsurer moved to intervene in a California federal court in an insurer’s breach of guaranty action against captive program members, arguing that the insurer’s recently filed motion for summary judgment would require the court to interpret their underlying reinsurance agreement, including how the reinsurer’s annual aggregate liability should be calculated and whether the insurer complied with its contractual good faith obligations.

  • August 19, 2026

    Homeowners File 2nd Amended Complaint After Demurrer Order In Antitrust Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A group of California homeowners filed a second amended complaint (SAC) in a California state court, narrowing their claims against a collection of insurers to Cartwright Act and unfair competition law (UCL) claims alleging that the insurers conspired to restrict conventional homeowners coverage and force policyholders into the California FAIR Plan, following an order that overruled the insurers’ joint demurrer to those claims but sustained with leave to amend some defendant-specific demurrers.

  • August 19, 2026

    Pharmacy Benefit Manager Disputes Reinsurer, Health Administrator Rebate Claims

    HOUSTON — A pharmacy benefit manager seeks a declaratory judgment in a Texas federal court after a reinsurer and third-party administrator (TPA) asserted competing claims to millions of dollars in prescription drug rebates, asking the court to declare that the rebates are not health plan assets and that neither defendant has a contractual, statutory or fiduciary right to their ownership or payment.

  • August 18, 2026

    Captive Administrator Claims It Is Not A Party To $229K Reimbursement Suit

    BOSTON — In a dispute over $229,963 allegedly owed under a group captive insurance program, the program’s administrator seeks summary judgment in a Massachusetts federal court, asserting that it was not a party to the governing membership agreement, that the disputed funds were controlled elsewhere and that the alleged conduct took place outside Massachusetts.

  • August 17, 2026

    Insurer Brings Counterclaims Against Reinsurer Over $31M Pollution Settlement

    CLEVELAND — Contending that its $31 million payment resolved liabilities covered by a reinsured policy, an insurer brought counterclaims for breach of contract, equitable subrogation and unjust enrichment in an Ohio federal court against a reinsurer seeking a declaration that it has no obligation under facultative reinsurance certificates to reimburse the payment, which arose from an environmental coverage dispute over remediation costs at a Kentucky aerospace manufacturing site.

  • August 17, 2026

    Scottish Re Receiver Recommends Approval Of $171.1M In Cedent Claims

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The receiver for Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc. (SRUS), a life insurer in liquidation, recommended that the Delaware Chancery Court approve approximately $171.1 million in 40 positively valued cedent reinsurance claims, along with one claim valued at $0 and another valued at negative $118,981.23.