Mealey's Reinsurance
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May 08, 2025
Sealing Request Gets OK In Contempt Bid In Fraud Suit Over Secured Loans
NEW YORK — Without explanation, a New York federal judge granted a motion to seal certain documents connected to a contempt request that concerns a preliminary injunction (PI) order in litigation over fraud and racketeering allegations that involve the parent company of Bermuda reinsurer 777 Re Ltd.
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May 07, 2025
Utah Regulator Agrees To Mediation With Insurers He Wanted To Have Rehabilitated
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Insurance Department has reported that litigation between it and Sentinel Security Life Insurance Co., Haymarket Insurance Co. and Jazz Reinsurance Co. has been paused pursuant to the parties’ agreement to participate in mediation.
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May 07, 2025
Breach Of Contract, Declaratory Judgment Counterclaims Filed Against Reinsurer
NEW YORK — A life insurer and its parent company filed two counterclaims in a federal court in New York, seeking declaratory judgment on the definition of a lapsed client under its transaction agreement with a reinsurer and alleging a breach of contract for the reinsurer’s alleged failure to cooperate in reviewing documents related to a disputed $50 million post-closure bonus payout.
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May 06, 2025
U.S. Opposes Summary Judgment, Dismissal In Captive Insurance Tax Shelter Dispute
PITTSBURGH — The U.S. government asked a federal court in Pennsylvania to reject a Pittsburgh-based corporation’s motion to dismiss the government’s counterclaim and motion for summary judgment, arguing that the company’s reliance on a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling is misplaced in a dispute over penalties tied to the corporation’s alleged promotion of a tax shelter through a purported captive insurance program.
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May 06, 2025
Policyholder’s Motion To Intervene Was Untimely, Life Insurer’s Rehabilitator Says
WATERBURY, Conn. — The rehabilitator of life insurer PHL Variable Insurance Co. and the subsidiaries that reinsure its liabilities urged a Connecticut state court to deny as untimely a motion to intervene filed by two policyholders who say their policies are worth millions and want a moratorium order to be modified to pay death benefits on a pari passu basis.
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April 30, 2025
Reinsurer, General Agent To File Settlement Papers In Breach Of Contract Suit
FORT WORTH, Texas — After a reinsurer and general agent settled a breach of contract suit involving an underlying multimillion-dollar personal injury judgment in mediation, a federal judge in Texas on April 29 directed the parties to file settlement papers.
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April 30, 2025
Legionnaires’ Suit Not Subject To Arbitration, Reinsured Entity Says
DETROIT — A reinsured entity is opposing a motion to dismiss in a Michigan federal court filed by the defendants in a lawsuit over claims related to Legionnaires’ disease, arguing that the defendants improperly invoked an arbitration provision and failed to seek concurrence before filing and that the underlying issues fall outside the arbitration provision because they stem from an unprocured and undisclosed agreement.
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April 30, 2025
Residents Sue State-Mandated Insurer ‘Of Last Resort’ Over Los Angeles Wildfires
LOS ANGELES — California residents sued the California Fair Plan Association (CFPA) and its largest members in a state court seeking damages for the defendants’ alleged bad faith breach of their property insurance policies following the Los Angeles wildfires in January.
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April 30, 2025
Parties Seek Discovery In Australia In Reinsurance Breach Of Contract Suit
NEW YORK — The defendants in a breach of contract lawsuit ask a New York federal court to issue letters rogatory to obtain otherwise unobtainable information from an industrial machinery manufacturer and two of its employees in an Australian court as part of a gold mining equipment dispute over whether the defendants are direct insurers or reinsurers of the plaintiff.
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April 29, 2025
Oregon Tax Court Sides With Taxpayer In Purported Captive Premiums Row
SALEM, Ore. — Ruling against the Oregon Department of Revenue in a dispute over whether premiums paid to a purported captive insurer could be deducted as insurance expenses for state taxes, an Oregon Tax Court magistrate judge concluded that neither Internal Revenue Service adjustments nor how Oregon defines “insurance for state tax purposes” bars the relief sought.
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April 28, 2025
Defendant Pleads Guilty To 1 Count In Alleged Bribery Case Involving Reinsurance
MIAMI — As part of a plea agreement, a defendant has pleaded guilty in a Florida federal court to a count of conspiracy to commit money laundering that the U.S. government filed over an alleged scheme to bribe Ecuadorian officials for reinsurance business.
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April 25, 2025
Oral Argument Set In Challenge To Rehab Plan For Workers’ Comp Insurer
SAN FRANCISCO — Oral argument is scheduled in the First District California Court of Appealin a workers’ compensation insurance carrier’s challenge to a nonconsensual rehabilitation plan that was approved as part of conservation proceedings brought by California’s insurance regulator and includes resolution of dozens of reinsurance participation agreement (RPA) lawsuits.
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April 25, 2025
Watchdog Group Seeks To Invalidate Insurance Bulletins Allowing Policy Surcharges
LOS ANGELES — A consumer research and advocacy organization alleges in a California state court lawsuit that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara exceeded his statutory authority by issuing two unlawful insurance bulletins that authorize member insurers of the California FAIR Plan to recoup assessments from policyholders and seeks a writ of mandate and injunction commanding Lara not to enforce the bulletins.
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April 23, 2025
Reinsurer, Life Insurer Seek Approval Of $6.48M Liquidation In Delaware Court
WILMINGTON, Del. — A stipulation filed in the Delaware Chancery Court between the receiver for a stock reinsurance company and a life insurer would provide for the distribution of $6.48 million and the liquidation of a reinsurance trust to resolve claims under a secured treaty.
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April 23, 2025
Policyholder Asks To Intervene, Contest Benefits Cap In Insurer Rehabilitation
WATERBURY, Conn. — A corporate policyholder holding $18 million in death benefits from a life insurer in rehabilitation moved to intervene in a Connecticut state court action, seeking involvement in future proceedings and participation in discovery, arguing that a moratorium order capping payout at $300,000 per insured policy imposes a disproportionate financial burden and violates priority rules under state insurance law.
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April 23, 2025
Captive Pool Members’ TROs Denied; Expedited Proceedings Granted In Delaware Court
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware state judge denied temporary restraining orders (TROs) sought by three participants in a captive insurance and reinsurance pool but granted their motions to expedite proceedings in three separate cases against the pool manager in a dispute over an alleged illegal reorganization that transferred policies from an “A” rated pool with more than $1 billion in assets to a new, unrated insurer with limited capitalization.
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April 22, 2025
5th Circuit Grants Joint Stipulation To Dismiss Crop Insurance Dispute
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a crop insurer and a farmer’s joint stipulation to dismiss an appeal after the parties notified the court that a settlement was reached in a case involving federally reinsured crop insurance, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), statutes of limitations, tolling and estoppel.
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April 22, 2025
Homeowners Accuse Insurers Of ‘Nefarious Conspiracy’ In Suit Arising From Wildfires
LOS ANGELES — California homeowners affected by the Los Angeles wildfires sued insurers in a California court for violations of the state’s Cartwright Act and unfair competition law (UCL), alleging that the insurers participated in a “nefarious conspiracy to eliminate competition between them, and to intentionally and systematically force Plaintiffs to obtain fire insurance from the state’s insurer of last resort.”
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April 22, 2025
Discovery Spat In Bad Faith Indemnity Row Involves Reserve, Reinsurance Information
STATESVILLE, N.C. — In a reply brief urging a North Carolina federal court to compel certain discovery, the plaintiff in a bad faith suit over an excess liability insurer’s alleged duty to indemnify argues, among other things, that the insurer “makes bare assertions that reserve information and communications with reinsurers are subject to attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protection on a categorical basis.”
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April 18, 2025
Captive Insurance Manager Seeks IRS Rule Injunction, Alleges Agency Overreach
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Invoking both the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), a captive insurance manager filed a complaint in a federal court in Tennessee challenging an Internal Revenue Service final rule targeting small captive tax avoidance schemes, requesting that the regulation be set aside as unlawful, arbitrary and capricious and an overreach of statutory authority.
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April 18, 2025
Judge Won’t Reconsider Denying Attorney Fees In Jury Trial Microcaptive Case
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Saying that the rules the corporate plaintiffs invoked don’t “provide a basis for reconsideration,” a Florida federal judge declined to revisit his denial of approximately $600,000 in attorney fees and costs in consolidated jury trial cases where they successfully challenged penalties that were imposed because the Internal Revenue Service deemed their involvement with purported microcaptive insurance companies to be promotion of abusive tax shelters.
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April 17, 2025
Defendant Seeks Immediate Appeal After PRT Challenge Survives Dismissal
GREENBELT, Md. — Requesting that denial of its dismissal motion be certified for immediate interlocutory appeal in a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs), Lockheed Martin Corp. told a Maryland federal court that a sister court’s contradictory ruling highlights the need for review by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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April 17, 2025
Tax Court Judge Denies IRS Attempt To Link Concessions To Microcaptive Penalties
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After rejecting the Internal Revenue Service commissioner’s request for partial summary judgment to impose accuracy-related penalties in consolidated cases involving disallowed microcaptive insurance deductions, a U.S. Tax Court judge issued a mixed ruling on a motion in limine, ruling that some contested documents are privileged because they contain communications seeking federal tax advice.
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April 17, 2025
Plaintiffs Lack DUFTA Standing, Insurance Holding Company Says In Delaware Court
WILMINGTON, Del. — Arguing that the plaintiffs in a putative class suit lack standing to bring a Delaware Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (DUFTA) claim, an insurance holding company and its affiliates seek summary judgment in the Delaware Chancery Court over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.
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April 17, 2025
$195,000 Class Deal Gets Final OK In Suit Over Allegedly Fraudulent Policies
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Noting the absence of objections and that “the average class member payment will be $467.77, and the highest payment will be $5,204.40,” a California federal judge granted final approval to a $195,000 class settlement that resolves a suit over allegedly counterfeited insurance policies sold through a captive reinsurance arrangement.