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March 05, 2025
FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California barred a fact witness in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) case from providing opinion testimony based on scientific, technical or specialized knowledge but allowed testimony regarding performed analysis and data review in connection with risk transfer and reinsurance services that he and a partner were hired to provide.
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March 05, 2025
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Calling both sides’ interpretations of facultative reinsurance certificates “plausible,” a New York federal judge denied competing summary judgment motions in a breach of contract suit involving a confidential environmental losses settlement.
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March 05, 2025
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — In a four-page, 19-point ruling on competing motions in limine in a suit over alleged legal malpractice, an Illinois federal judge said in part that she denied the insurer plaintiff’s request to prohibit references to underlying damages that its reinsurers covered because while the insurer “cannot seek to recover the amounts” those reinsurers paid, “there may be some reference to those amounts in seeking damages for [the insurer’s] increased premiums.”
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March 04, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — A liquidating trust filed a motion in Delaware federal bankruptcy court seeking approval of a $7.1 million settlement with a company that alleged a number of constructive trust claims against Vesttoo Ltd., an Israel-based fintech startup involved in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
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March 04, 2025
By Scott M. Seaman
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March 04, 2025
HARTFORD, Conn. — The rehabilitator of life insurance company PHL Variable Insurance Co. and various subsidiaries that reinsured its liabilities reached a stipulated agreement allowing a trio of asset managers to intervene in the Connecticut action so that the court can determine setoff rights.
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March 04, 2025
NEW YORK— A London-based reinsurer has filed an answer in a federal court in New York to a breach of contact counterclaim brought by the assignee of the liquidator of an insolvent insurer concerning decades-old asbestos claims; the counterclaim was brought by the assignee after the reinsurer successfully petitioned for a stay of arbitration.
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March 03, 2025
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A reinsurer and a management general agency were granted permission by a New York federal court to dismiss claims against an ambulatory surgery center in an ongoing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit alleging fraudulent workers’ compensation claims and personal injury lawsuits.
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March 03, 2025
BOSTON — Competing summary judgment motions have been filed in an indemnification dispute, with the plaintiff telling a Massachusetts federal court that it is entitled to damages of at least $75.7 million plus interest and fees under the plain language of a stock purchase agreement (SPA) and reinsurance agreement, and the defendant contending that agreements executed in a later “clean shell” deal constituted a novation of any obligations and that the plaintiff’s conduct since 2013 “is not how an insurer acts with respect to a company that it truly believes is providing it with reinsurance coverage.”
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February 27, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Five counterclaims that a managing general agent (MGA) asserted against an insurer in a case arising from a fronting arrangement have been dismissed wholly or in part, with a Louisiana federal judge repeatedly citing Louisiana law in his ruling on the insurer’s motion.
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February 26, 2025
LONDON — Saying in part that he doesn’t think an appeal of a final antiarbitration injunction has a “realistic” chance of succeeding, a judge of the High Court of England and Wales denied a reinsurer’s application in a contractual construction case that involves a hierarchy or “confusion” clause; he also weighed in on several disputes regarding costs that the reinsurer will have to pay.
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February 25, 2025
NEW YORK — Voluntary dismissal of an appeal of a civil contempt order was granted in a Feb. 24 opinion issued by a New York federal judge; the bankruptcy court ruling at issue arose in an adversary proceeding in the liquidation of Bermuda insurer and reinsurer PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd. (PBLA) and other debtors.
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February 25, 2025
CHICAGO — An insurer filed a motion for reconsideration and a motion for partial judgment on the pleadings in its ongoing dispute with its reinsurer, arguing that an Illinois federal judge incorrectly determined that a portion of the reinsurance agreement is ambiguous and maintaining that judgment is warranted on the reinsurer’s request for attorney fees because the reinsurer failed to support the request for attorney fees.
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February 24, 2025
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 23 found that two experts retained by a law firm in an insurer’s suit over alleged legal malpractice cannot testify because their conclusions and opinions are not reliable under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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February 24, 2025
NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal magistrate judge recommended remanding a reinsurance dispute to state court, writing that defendant international reinsurers who contended that the suit was removable under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) failed to establish that the relevant parties entered a binding arbitration agreement.
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February 21, 2025
OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal magistrate judge granted a motion filed by National Indemnity Co. (NICO) to restrict access to documents containing expert reports in its suit seeking to enforce obligations by defendants it calls reinsurers — one of which is now insolvent — for liability NICO incurred related to claims for asbestos exposure.
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February 21, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — Legal counsel for a trustee for estates in an insolvent insurer’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding filed an application in Delaware federal bankruptcy court seeking compensation and reimbursement of expenses for a total of $126,307.16.
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February 21, 2025
NEW YORK — A dispute in a federal court in New York over indemnification between an insurer and a reinsurer stemming from clash reinsurance treaties tied to a $200 million settlement of sexual abuse claims is poised for out-of-court resolution according to a status letter filed by the reinsurer.
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February 20, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — Parties in a case arising from a fronting arrangement are disputing a motion to consolidate, with a managing general agent (MGA) arguing in a reply brief that the Louisiana federal court should focus on “the integrated nature of the transactions and agreements at issue” and that consolidation would “promote judicial economy.”
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February 20, 2025
DALLAS — Filing counterclaims against its former CEO in Texas federal court, a delisted insurer that says its shares are now “essentially worthless” alleges that his purported “scheme to doctor the claims reserves in the commercial auto line was a significant factor in” losses connected to termination of a loss portfolio transfer (LPT) reinsurance contract.
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February 20, 2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The United States filed a petition in a federal court in Tennessee, seeking to compel the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) to turn over tax documents requested by the Internal Revenue Service as part of an ongoing investigation into microcaptive insurance companies and potential tax evasion.
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February 19, 2025
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Saying that “the evidence relied upon by the Director was unreliable, unsupported, and contrary to law,” a South Carolina Administrative Law Court judge permanently enjoined the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI) from enforcing an order “until a final decision is issued by the [SDCOI] in this matter”; the order directed Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Co. (ACL) and ACL’s captive reinsurer, Southern Atlantic Re Inc. (SAR), to stop writing new business by the end of 2024, among other things.
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February 19, 2025
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge granted a Malta-based company’s unopposed motion to stay a breach of contract case a now-insolvent insurer filed against it for the company’s alleged failure to make payments on a loan.
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February 18, 2025
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal magistrate judge ordered parties to “confer and make a good-faith effort to resolve” a discovery dispute that is the subject of a motion to compel in four reinsurers’ consolidated lawsuits against National Transportation Associates Inc. (NTA) over allegations of inflated provisional commissions and breach of various agreements.
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February 13, 2025
WILMINGTON, Del. — A discovery facilitator has been appointed in a Delaware Chancery Court case concerning the “Agera transactions” — a complex asset-swap arrangement that the plaintiffs allege resulted in the “dissipation of at least $250 million.”