Mealey's Reinsurance
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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May 19, 2025
Court Dismisses Reinsurance Reimbursement Dispute Case At Parties’ Request
DES MOINES, Iowa — A reinsurance reimbursement dispute was dismissed one day after two members of the GuideOne family of insurance companies and a China-based reinsurerfiled a joint stipulation of dismissal in a federal court in Iowa.
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May 15, 2025
IRS Moves To Dismiss Microcaptive Rule Challenge, Claiming Lack Of Jurisdiction
DALLAS — In a challenge to a final rule in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Treasury Department require reports for certain purported microcaptive insurance arrangements, the IRS moved in a Texas federal court to dismiss a tax consulting firm’s amended complaint, asserting that it acted within its statutory authority, that the court lacks jurisdiction, that the tax firm fails to state an actual controversy and that the suit is barred under the Declaratory Judgments Act (DJA).
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May 14, 2025
Delaware Chancery Court Orders Hearing On Claims Disputes In Reinsurer Liquidation
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Chancery Court scheduled a July 21 hearing on a quartet of motions concerning reinsurance claims, the establishment of a bar date and approval of dispute procedures in relation to the liquidation of life and health reinsurer Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc. (SRUS).
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May 13, 2025
Arbitration Summons Quashed By Florida Federal Court In Reinsurance Claims Dispute
TAMPA, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge denied without prejudice a reinsurer’s motion to enforce a nonparty arbitration summons, finding the summons, issued to the agent of a pair of cedents, to be procedurally deficient and ordering it quashed in a dispute involving the agent’s noncompliance with the summons.
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May 13, 2025
Judge: Reinsurance Info Is Relevant In Cyberattack Coverage Lawsuit
BALTIMORE — A media company that sued excess insurers it alleges owe millions in connection with an October 2021 cyberattack has obtained a mixed ruling on discovery disputes, with a Maryland federal magistrate judge concluding in part that “reinsurance policies, as well as related documents and communications, are relevant to [the plaintiff’s] bad faith claim and should be produced.”
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May 12, 2025
Production Of Reinsurance Agreement Ordered In Disability Benefits Dispute
JACKSON, Miss. — Days after a Mississippi federal magistrate judge ordered a workers’ compensation insurer to produce a reinsurance agreement, the magistrate judge granted the insurer’s motion to stay the production deadline until seven days after a ruling is issued on its forthcoming motion for a protective order as part of a broader conflict involving disputed temporary total disability (TTD) benefits.
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May 09, 2025
2nd Circuit Abrogates Precedent On Reverse-Preemption In $12.5M Hurricane Ida Row
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 8 abrogated its own precedent holding that an international convention regarding arbitration of foreign disputes is “not self-executing” and can be reverse-preempted by state law and reversed the denials of motions to compel arbitration of surplus line policy disputes for more than $12.5 million in damages caused to Louisiana properties by Hurricane Ida.
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May 09, 2025
Justice Refuses To Dismiss Archdiocese’s Claims In Sexual Abuse Coverage Dispute
NEW YORK — A New York justice denied general and excess liability insurers’ motion to dismiss the Archdiocese of New York’s claims for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and violations of New York General Business Law Section 348 in a coverage dispute arising from close to 1,700 underlying sexual abuse lawsuits, rejecting the insurers’ contention that the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim is duplicative of the breach of contract claim.