Mealey's Reinsurance : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Reinsurance

June 20, 2025
Federal Judge Tosses Reinsurers RICO ‘Fake Accident’ Suit Against Law Firm, Agent

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on June 19 dismissed without prejudice a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit against a law firm and its agent accused of a “scheme” to defraud a reinsurer and a related party by staging construction-related workers’ compensation accidents, finding that the claims fail for lack of pleading “direct injuries.”
June 18, 2025
Upon Reconsideration, Dismissal Motion Again Denied In Reinsurance Dispute

CHICAGO — After granting reconsideration, an Illinois federal judge again denied an insurer’s motion for dismissal of its reinsurer’s breach of contract claim, ruling that the contested definition of what constitutes a reinsurance policy under the disputed contract creates a question of fact that cannot be resolved on a motion to dismiss and that contradictory economic reports establish another factual dispute.
June 18, 2025
Plaintiff Cites N.Y. Federal Ruling In Discovery Row Involving Reinsurance Info

STATESVILLE, N.C. — The plaintiff in a bad faith suit over an excess liability insurer’s alleged duty to indemnify has filed a notice of supplemental authority in which it directs the attention of a North Carolina federal court to a New York federal court ruling that it says “held that reserve and reinsurance information is discoverable in an insurance coverage action.”
June 18, 2025
Stay Granted, Trial Vacated In Captive Insurance Dispute After Settlement Offer

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge stayed litigation and vacated a forthcoming trial date to allow time for the United States to respond to and prepare acceptance of a written offer submitted by the executive of a purported captive insurance company that the United States says would resolve all claims and counterclaims brought forth in the litigation.
June 18, 2025
English Justice Rules That Aircraft Losses Fall Under War Risk Coverage

LONDON — In a 230-page ruling pertaining to six cases filed over aircraft and engine leases affected by the legal and economic fallout of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, an English justice concluded in part that there were losses worth billions of dollars and that war risk (WR) rather than hull all risks (AR) coverage should apply.
June 18, 2025
U.S. Answers In Captive Insurance Deduction Row After Dismissal Motion Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States filed an answer to a federal tax refund complaint after a federal judge denied its motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding the administrative record unclear as to whether the Internal Revenue Service received an amended tax return underlying a couple’s claim stemming from disallowed deductions for insurance premiums paid to their captive insurance company.
June 13, 2025
Federal Judge Rules On 8 Motions In Coverage Row Involving Insolvent Insurer

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge ruled that adherence to New York law precludes a reinsurer’s breach of warranty defense in National Indemnity Co.’s (NICO) suit to enforce its reinsurers’ obligations for incurred liabilities related to asbestos exposure; the judge also resolved seven additional motions pertaining to claims for novation and various coverage disputes, among others.
June 13, 2025
Magistrate Partly Grants Insured’s Motion To Compel In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York granted in part and denied in part a holding company for the U.S. interests in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s motion to compel its “all risk” insurers to produce certain documents they have withheld as privileged in a coronavirus coverage dispute, directing the insurers to produce communications with their reinsurers and produce documents containing reserve information unless there is another viable ground for withholding.
June 12, 2025
Receiver Of Liquidated Reinsurer Seeks Settlement With Long-Serving TPA

WILMINGTON, Del. — The receiver for the liquidation of life and health reinsurer Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc. (SRUS) asked the Delaware Chancery Court to approve a settlement resolving a dispute with its third-party administrator (TPA), which had sought to terminate its service agreement with SRUS.
June 11, 2025
Reinsurer Loses Bid To Dismiss Counterclaims In Case Arising From Vesttoo Collapse

BOSTON — Counterclaims against a commercial reinsurer survived dismissal in litigation connected to the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd., with a Massachusetts state court judge ruling in part that pay-as-paid provisions “protected only the primary insurers, and the ‘follow form’ provision in the Reinsurance Certificates did not rewrite them to protect [the reinsurer] as well.”
June 11, 2025
Ferrosilicon Producer Seeks Reconsideration On Discovery Limits In Cleanup Row

PADUCAH, Ky. — A ferrosilicon producer seeks reconsideration of a Kentucky federal magistrate judge’s ruling limiting the scope of the producer’s issued deposition topics, claiming that the court erred in failing to acknowledge a reinsurer as a proper party in the litigation and misinterpreted its role in a reinsurance contract in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.
June 06, 2025
Federal Judge: District Court Does Not Have Jurisdiction To Enforce Remand Order

BAY CITY, Mich. — A motion to enforce a remand order filed by a group of farmers was denied in a Michigan federal court in a crop insurance dispute involving a dry-bean revenue endorsement (DBRE), after the judge ruled that the court did not retain jurisdiction when the litigation was remanded and said that the farmers must file a new case under Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to continue proceedings.
June 05, 2025
7th Circuit Lacks Jurisdiction, Tosses Appeal In Preclusion Dispute

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed an interlocutory appeal brought by the successor to a dissolved coal mining company in a decades-long dispute over whether mine subsidence claims are barred by claim and issue preclusion, holding that it lacked jurisdiction to review a district court’s partial dismissal of claims seeking to bar future litigation by a reinsurer because the lower court’s order neither definitively denied injunctive relief nor addressed claims materially distinct from those still pending.
June 05, 2025
Life Insurance Premiums Not Debt In Rehabilitation Row, Connecticut Judge Says

WATERBURY, Conn. — Following oral arguments, a Connecticut judge clarified the interpretation of debt under the Connecticut Insurers Rehabilitation and Liquidation Act (CIRLA), opining that the argument advanced by three asset managers — that premiums owed on their life insurance policies issued by PHL Variable Insurance Co., currently in rehabilitation, constitutes debt — conflicts with binding precedent established by a long-standing ruling.
June 03, 2025
Utah Regulator’s Rehab Petition Is Dismissed Without Prejudice

SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit in which Utah Insurance Commissioner Jonathan T. Pike sought to have Sentinel Security Life Insurance Co., Haymarket Insurance Co. and Jazz Reinsurance Co. placed into rehabilitation has been dismissed without prejudice, text-only entries in the Utah state court docket show.
June 03, 2025
Insurer Alleges Reinsurer Breached Policy Agreement In Asbestos Settlement Row

NEW YORK — An insurer seeks nearly $2 million in damages in a New York federal court, alleging in ts complaint that its reinsurer breached their policy agreement by refusing to pay its share of a settlement tied to asbestos bodily injury claims brought by a corporation covered under the insurer’s excess liability policies.
May 29, 2025
Jurisdiction, Other Issues Disputed In Case Connected To Vesttoo Collapse

NEW YORK — In letters filed pursuant to a New York federal judge’s individual rule, China Construction Bank Corp. (CCBC) and related entities sued in connection with the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd. outline dismissal arguments and the plaintiffs counter in part that accepting the defendants’ contention that disputes over letters of credit (LOCs) “issued for U.S. reinsurance transactions, sanctioned by U.S. regulators and payable in the U.S must be litigated in China would collapse the entire reinsurance framework.”
May 27, 2025
Parties Seek Discovery In Ghana In Reinsurance Breach Of Contract Suit

NEW YORK — The plaintiffs in a breach of contract lawsuit ask a New York federal court to issue letters rogatory to a Ghanaian insurer and three of its employees to obtain otherwise unobtainable information from as part of a gold mining equipment dispute over whether the defendants are direct insurers or reinsurers of the plaintiffs.
May 27, 2025
Environmental Risk Insurer Sues Agent, Alleges Contract Breach, Tortious Conduct

NEW YORK — A U.K.-based global specialist insurance company alleges in a New York federal court that its agent unlawfully shared confidential business information that led to its U.S. small business environmental book being shopped for reinsurance coverage by another insurance company, bringing claims for breach of contract and tortious conduct against the agent and stating that it lost millions of dollars and nearly all policy renewals.
May 27, 2025
Approval Sought Of $300K Settlement With Israeli Investors In Vesttoo Liquidation

WILMINGTON, Del. — A liquidating trust filed a motion in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware seeking approval of a proposed $300,000 settlement with a pair of Israeli investors who stated a number of unsecured claims and equity interests against three debtors involved in fintech startup Vesttoo Ltd.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
May 27, 2025
Contempt Motion Draws Opposition In Fraud Suit Over Security Loans

NEW YORK — Urging a New York federal court to deny a contempt motion in litigation over fraud and racketeering allegations that involve the parent company of Bermuda reinsurer 777 Re Ltd., parties who are the focus of that motion are arguing in part that the movants “made no attempt to block the transactions — because neither violates” a preliminary injunction (PI) order.
May 23, 2025
13 Potential Buyers Interested In Life Insurer’s Business, Rehabilitator Says

WATERBURY, Conn. — The rehabilitator of PHL Variable Insurance Co. and the subsidiaries that reinsure its liabilities told a Connecticut state court in a second accounting and status report that 13 entities have been identified as potential buyers for portions of the insurer’s business.
May 22, 2025
Tax Firm Claims Standing, Opposes IRS Dismissal Motion In Microcaptive Rule Suit

DALLAS — In response to the Internal Revenue Service’s motion to dismiss its challenge to a final rule requiring reports for certain microcaptive insurance arrangements, a tax consulting firm told a Texas federal court that it has standing because it is directly regulated and faces injury from the rule’s new reporting requirements; the tax firm further argues that dismissal is premature without review of the administrative record and that the issue should be resolved through summary judgment.
May 22, 2025
Kentucky Federal Judge Denies Reconsideration Request In Cleanup Costs Dispute

PADUCAH, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky overruled the objections presented in and denied a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs, ruling that the reconsideration motion impermissibly raised new arguments and failed to identify claimed ambiguities in a reinsurance contract between it and an insurer and reinsurer.
May 21, 2025
5th Case Added To Consolidated Litigation Over Fronting Deal Agreements, Commissions

FORT WORTH, Texas — A fifth case has been added to consolidated litigation between reinsurers and National Transportation Associates Inc. (NTA) that centers on the reinsurers’ claims of inflated provisional commissions and breach of various agreements, with the latest allegations involving a dispute over whether contractual mandates issued by California and other states render the commission structure unenforceable.