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May 29, 2026
DALLAS — After the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of most of a homeowner insurer’s breach of contract claim arising from losses tied to the Vesttoo Ltd. collapse but revived the portion of the claim based on a reinsurance broker’s alleged failure to perform administrative duties under a 2017 reinsurance intermediary authorization agreement (RIAA), a reinsurance broker moved to dismiss the remaining claim, arguing that Vesttoo and China Construction Bank (CCB) are required parties to the case but that Vesttoo cannot be joined without destroying diversity jurisdiction.
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May 29, 2026
NEW YORK — A Florida businessman sued by a reinsurer over an allegedly breached $34.4 million limited guaranty tied to a defaulted credit facility has filed a fraudulent inducement counterclaim in New York federal court, asserting that he executed the guaranty and participated in the loan transaction in reliance on collateral-related representations that were false and made with the knowledge and participation of affiliates involved in the transaction.
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May 28, 2026
LOS ANGELES — California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara argues in an opposition brief filed in a California state court that a consumer research and advocacy organization’s petition to invalidate regulatory bulletins authorizing California FAIR Plan assessment cost pass-throughs should be denied because the bulletins only explain the prior-approval process for temporary supplemental fees and do not conflict with the FAIR Plan proportional-sharing requirement because that provision governs only the FAIR Plan’s internal affairs rather than member insurers’ relationships with policyholders.
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May 27, 2026
CHICAGO — An insurer and its parent corporation sued a Chinese bank and two affiliates in an Illinois federal court, alleging that the bank refused to honor nine Vesttoo Ltd.-related standby letters of credit with a combined face value of nearly $10 million that were required to collateralize reinsurance obligations, leaving the insurer with impaired surplus, regulatory restrictions and unreimbursed claims.
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May 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In supplemental briefing in a crop insurance agency’s suit over reduced agent commissions and policy transfer allegations, the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) argues that it is immune from the agency’s declaratory judgment claims because the Federal Crop Insurance Act (FCIA) does not waive sovereign immunity for challenges to FCIC’s regulatory conduct, while the agency maintains that the FCIA’s sue-and-be-sued clause permits declaratory relief concerning FCIC’s alleged duties under the statute and a standard reinsurance agreement.
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May 26, 2026
NEW YORK — Without substantive explanation, parties in a challenge to dismissal of a putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension risk transfer (PRT) class case on May 22 informed the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that they have stipulated to dismissing the appeal with prejudice and bearing their own “costs and fees on appeal.”
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May 22, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Declining to dismiss a putative class action that involves several Employee Retirement Income Security Act issues that have seen much litigation recently, including how reinsurance arrangements affect the risk of fund guarantor insolvency, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled that claims regarding a purportedly underperforming stable value fund (SVF) survive because the plaintiffs’ “meaningful benchmark” allegations are sufficient at this stage, and claims regarding use of forfeited funds survive for reasons including that the record does not yet include critical plan documents.
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May 20, 2026
PADUCAH, Ky. — A reinsurer and a ferrosilicon producer filed summary judgment motions in a Kentucky federal court in a pollution cleanup cost coverage dispute, with the reinsurer seeking dismissal of all claims against it on the basis that it is only an indemnity reinsurer with no contractual duties to the producer and the producer seeking rulings that its insurer and the reinsurer must cover more than $4.6 million in disputed claim costs, plus future regulatory compliance costs, under a pollution legal liability policy.
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May 20, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Court of Appeals of North Carolina on May 20 affirmed a lower court order granting a motion for a charging order filed by a life insurance company against the economic interest of former insurance mogul, Greg Lindberg, in his holding company, Global Growth Holdings LLC, finding that the lower court had statutory authority to issue the charging order and “was not required to establish in rem or quasi in rem jurisdiction over Global because charging orders are not directed at foreign LLCs but rather concern the judgment-debtor’s personal property.”
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May 18, 2026
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina federal magistrate judge dismissed a tobacco farmer’s suit against his crop insurer after the farmer failed to respond to a show-cause order issued when the court lifted a stay after the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied the farmer’s request for a Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) noncompliance determination.
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May 15, 2026
CLEVELAND — A reinsurer seeks a declaration in an Ohio federal court that it has no obligation under facultative reinsurance certificates to reimburse an insurer for a $31 million guaranty settlement paid in an environmental coverage dispute over remediation costs at a Kentucky aerospace manufacturing site.
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May 13, 2026
NEW YORK — A food-processing company filed a notice of appeal in a New York federal court, appealing to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the New York court’s denial of its petition to vacate a confidential reinsurance arbitration award and grant of a reinsurer’s cross-motion to confirm the award in a dispute arising from a fire at a poultry rendering facility in Alabama.
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May 13, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York state justice granted three bank defendants only partial dismissal of a segregated accounts insurer’s amended complaint arising from the Vesttoo Ltd. letter of credit reinsurance scheme, dismissing a negligence claim as duplicative but allowing fraud, misrepresentation and negligent supervision claims to proceed based on allegations that the insurer had standing and sufficiently pleaded liability, reliance and notice tied to allegedly fraudulent letters of credit used in reinsurance transactions.
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May 13, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge issued letters rogatory allowing two vendors to seek overseas discovery in the United Kingdom from personnel of a dismissed insurance broker in connection with the vendors’ remaining negligence claims against another broker over political violence coverage and reinsurance allegedly procured for a 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse in Afghanistan that the Taliban seized in 2021.
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May 12, 2026
WATERBURY, Conn. — A Connecticut state judge ruled that no oral argument is needed on a motion to intervene filed in the rehabilitation proceedings for PHL Variable Insurance Co. by a group of policyholders seeking limited intervention to pursue, or obtain authority to pursue, potential claims against entities formerly affiliated with PHL through its pre-rehabilitation corporate structure on behalf of PHL’s estate, ordering that the motion and the rehabilitator’s objection will be decided “on the papers.”
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May 08, 2026
NEW YORK — A reinsurer filed a notice of supplemental authority urging a New York federal court to confirm two arbitration awards and reject an intergovernmental risk pool’s Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) vacatur challenge, arguing that recent reinsurance arbitration rulings involving comparable arbitration provisions held that arbitral reliance on insurance and reinsurance custom and practice, rather than rules of law, does not establish a basis for vacatur.
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May 08, 2026
DALLAS — A Texas federal judge dismissed without prejudice an amended putative class action complaint filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) challenging a retirement plan’s use of a Prudential Guaranteed Income Fund in its 401(k) plan, holding that the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege fiduciary imprudence because they failed to connect the retirement plan’s offshore reinsurance arrangements, low surplus-to-liabilities ratios and allegedly underperforming crediting rates to deficiencies in the fiduciary decision-making process.
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May 06, 2026
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina federal magistrate judge lifted a stay in a tobacco farmer’s suit against his crop insurer and ordered him to show cause why the case should not be dismissed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied his request for a Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) noncompliance determination.
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May 06, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — Former executives and engineers of a group of insurance technology companies moved to dismiss a Delaware state court complaint, arguing that their former employers’ claims arising from allegations that they used confidential information to launch a competing reinsurance venture should be rejected for lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue and failure to state a claim.
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May 05, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The United States of America filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit filed by California homeowners affected by the Los Angeles wildfires against their insurers for violations of the state’s Cartwright Act and unfair competition law (UCL), negligence and fraud, noting that although the action asserts only state competition law claims, the United States has a strong interest because the alleged conduct by the insurers “presents a serious concern under the federal antitrust laws.”
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May 05, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A plastics manufacturer, a captive insurer and a microcaptive manager on May 4 appealed to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a Texas federal judge’s partial summary judgment ruling in their challenge to an IRS microcaptive disclosure rule, contesting the lower court’s determination that the agency acted within its statutory authority to require disclosure of potentially tax-avoidant transactions.
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April 29, 2026
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A farming partnership filed suit in a South Dakota federal court seeking judicial review of a determination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) denying a requested noncompliance finding under federal crop insurance regulations, alleging that the agency’s decision improperly blocked its ability to pursue extra-contractual damages against its insurer and agents in connection with a disputed 2017 Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) claim.
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April 29, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insurer alleges in a California federal court that multiple companies breached guaranty agreements by failing to reimburse more than $5 million owed under a 2019 reinsurance agreement after a reinsurer defaulted and failed to indemnify the insurer.
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April 28, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 27 denied an insurer’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision holding that late notice of underlying class litigation relieved a reinsurer of indemnity obligations under a quota share reinsurance treaty; the insurer had argued in its petition that the appellate court imposed an objective notice standard not recognized under Texas law.
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April 28, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Arguing that two regulatory bulletins unlawfully authorize insurers to shift California FAIR Plan assessment costs onto policyholders, a consumer research and advocacy organization contends in a California state court that the pass-through structure effectuated by the bulletins conflicts with the governing proportional-sharing mandate and cannot be sustained under the state’s insurance ratemaking framework.