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October 22, 2026
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered an order approving a stipulation between a wholly owned captive insurer of Tyson Foods Inc. and a reinsurer to withdraw the captive insurer’s appeal of a district court’s denial of its petition to vacate a confidential reinsurance arbitration award and grant of the 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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October 22, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge denied a Philadelphia law firm and its attorney’s motion for partial summary judgment in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit accusing them of orchestrating fraudulent personal injury claims against Uber Technologies Inc. and Federal Express Corp. (FedEx), finding that a factual dispute over Uber’s out-of-pocket expenses precludes summary judgment and that Uber does not lose standing merely because its insurer paid defense costs and settlements on its behalf.
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October 21, 2026
HOUSTON — An insurer filed suit in a Texas federal court against two insurance program partners, alleging that they breached a guaranty and indemnity agreement by failing to pay $4.7 million in collateral owed by a nonparty captive insurance cell under a quota share reinsurance agreement.
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October 21, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware granted a fifth extension of the claims objection bar date in the Chapter 11 liquidation of Vesttoo Ltd. and its affiliates by 180 days to April 5, 2027, finding that additional time is necessary to administer the confirmed liquidation plan as the trustee continues to pursue litigation recoveries and reconcile outstanding creditor claims.
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October 21, 2026
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a notice scheduling oral argument for Dec. 17 in a case in which a captive insurance manager asserts that a Tennessee federal judge erred in upholding an IRS final rule governing small captive insurance arrangements because the rule treats legitimate captives as abusive or potentially abusive tax-avoidance transactions without a sufficient abuse finding.
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October 20, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh-based company challenging the IRS’s assessment and collection of tax shelter promoter penalties without a prior jury trial asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to certify for interlocutory appeal his order denying its renewed motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, arguing that the case presents novel constitutional questions about the agency’s penalty assessment framework, including a 15% prepayment requirement, that warrant immediate appellate review.
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October 19, 2026
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A reinsurance broker has moved to dismiss claims brought against it by a health care system in a dispute over more than $7.6 million in denied excess-of-loss reinsurance claims, arguing that the parties’ claims service agreement precludes contractual liability and that the remaining claims are legally deficient or duplicative.
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October 02, 2026
By William G. Passannante, Luma S. Al-Shibib and Kathleen V. Gatti
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October 06, 2026
By Scott M. Seaman and Daniel C. Shatz
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October 07, 2026
DENVER — A Colorado federal judge granted summary judgment to a wholesale insurance broker on a breach of contract claim in its dispute with a retail insurance broker over captive insurance placements, finding that their consulting and brokerage agreement barred the retailer from dealing directly with a captive insurance provider the wholesaler introduced even after the wholesaler’s relationship with the provider ended, while granting the retailer summary judgment on the remaining claims.
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October 07, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A captive insurance program operator and reinsurer sued a technology startup company in the Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that the company, which established a captive program to provide automobile insurance coverage for customers using its car rental and car-sharing platform, breached its contractual obligations by failing to pay more than $36 million in capital contributions and other amounts demanded to fund growing claims under the program.
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October 02, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge denied the Internal Revenue Service’s request to stay briefing in a tax firm’s Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenge to the agency’s final microcaptive insurance disclosure rule pending resolution of a related appeal involving the same regulations but wrote that should either party desire to consolidate the present action with the related one, a motion should be filed.
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September 30, 2026
PITTSBURGH — Ruling on what he called an issue of first impression concerning the constitutionality of the Internal Revenue Code’s (IRC) 15% prepayment requirement, a Pennsylvania federal judge denied renewed motions for dismissal and for summary judgment filed by a Pittsburgh-based corporation challenging more than $6.5 million in promoter penalties tied to a purported captive insurance program, applying in part a constitutional originalism analysis of the Seventh Amendment to determine that the requirement does not violate the right to a jury trial because it is analogous to founding-era requirements that parties whose assets are at risk post security before trial.
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September 29, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Three life insurance trusts filed a putative class action complaint in a Connecticut federal court alleging that private equity owners acquired PHL Variable Insurance Co. after promising regulators and policyholders they would preserve and strengthen it, but instead diverted assets through a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) buyback program and captive reinsurance arrangements, concealed the insurer’s deteriorating financial condition and ultimately left policyholders subject to a $300,000 death benefit cap.
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September 29, 2026
BOSTON — Overruling objections from each party in a putative class action that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges, a Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 28 adopted a report and recommendation that concluded that the amended complaint “plausibly alleges that a fiduciary breach occurred” but that only a claim against an independent fiduciary and one of the fiduciary’s managing directors survives dismissal.
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September 29, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — The secretary of Agriculture and the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) moved for summary judgment in a Minnesota federal court dispute brought by dry bean farmers challenging the Federal Crop Insurance Corp.’s (FCIC) 2023 reapproval of a revenue-protection policy’s contingency pricing methodology, arguing that the agency acted reasonably and not arbitrarily or capriciously because it obtained expert review and concluded that the coverage was actuarially sound and protective of producers’ interests.
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September 28, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The Internal Revenue Service asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay briefing in a tax firm’s Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenge to the agency’s final microcaptive insurance disclosure rule pending resolution of a related appeal involving the same regulations, arguing that the earlier-filed appeal could narrow or moot issues in the present case and avoid duplicative briefing and argument.
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September 25, 2026
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A health plan sued its former reinsurance broker and excess-of-loss reinsurer in a California federal court, alleging that the broker improperly characterized more than $7.6 million in long-term acute care (LTAC) claims as noncovered rehabilitation services and that the reinsurer relied on those representations to deny coverage under the 2024 policy.
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September 24, 2026
DALLAS — The former CEO of a financial services company opposes an additional 90-day abatement in a Texas federal court dispute with his former employer over its obligation to fund his defense against counterclaims alleging manipulation of commercial auto claims reserves, arguing that the stay should continue only until shortly after the effective date of the company’s confirmed Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, as contemplated by the bankruptcy court’s confirmation order.
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September 24, 2026
OLDWICK, N.J. — Global credit rating agency AM Best announced in a press release that it has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) and the long-term issuer credit rating (long-term ICR) of Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Co., a respondent in a South Carolina state court rehabilitation proceeding, and Sentinel Security Life Insurance Co. (collectively, A-CAP Group) because of the “increasing weakness in A-CAP Group’s balance sheet strength as well as its operating performance during the first half of 2026.”
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September 21, 2026
NEW YORK — Former insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, who is currently serving a 12-year prison term following his guilty plea to conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges related to his $2 billion insurance fraud scheme and his separate conviction on retrial in a case for bribing the North Carolina insurance commissioner, filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit in New York federal court against the commissioner, related parties and a law firm, alleging that the defendants participated in a scheme to extract over $165 million in fees from the insurance estates they administer “while methodically destroying billions of dollars in value that Lindberg lawfully built over decades.”
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September 18, 2026
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance (DOI) filed a petition in state court seeking an order appointing him as receiver of Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Co. and its subsidiary and reinsurer, Southern Atlantic Re Inc. (collectively, insurers) for rehabilitation purposes and directing him to take possession of and to administer the insurers’ assets, asserting that the insurers’ “risky” and “improper” investments threaten their ability to make annuity payments for “mostly elderly policyholders.”
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September 17, 2026
CINCINNATI — The Internal Revenue Service seeks affirmance in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a lower court’s ruling that upheld a disputed agency final rule that established two regulations governing small captive insurance arrangements, maintaining that it acted within its congressionally delegated authority to promulgate the directive and that its implementation does not violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
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September 16, 2026
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.
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September 16, 2026
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.