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Insurance
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May 25, 2012
Calif. Assembly OKs Bill To Curb Insurers' Iran Investments
The California Assembly on Friday approved legislation aiming to deter insurers from making investments in businesses with financial ties to Iran's energy sector, but the insurance industry claims the measure runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution because it conflicts with federal foreign policy.
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May 25, 2012
Ex-AIG, Gen Re Execs In Settlement Talks With US
Federal prosecutors are discussing settling a high-profile criminal case against five former executives of General Reinsurance Corp. and American International Group over a $500 million accounting scandal that included securities fraud charges, a motion filed Thursday revealed.
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May 25, 2012
Ohio OKs Fracking Bill Requiring More Insurance, Disclosures
The Ohio legislature gave final approval Thursday to legislation that calls for oil and gas companies to reveal chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and requires horizontal well owners to obtain at least $5 million in insurance coverage.
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May 25, 2012
Class Says JPMorgan Made Them Buy Excessive Flood Coverage
A class of homeowners sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. affiliates JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Chase Insurance Agency Inc. in New York on Thursday, accusing them of forcing homeowners to buy more flood insurance than they needed.
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May 25, 2012
DOMA Ruled Unconstitutional In Calif. Same-Sex Benefits Suit
The Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex spouses by denying them long-term care insurance through a California public-employee pension program, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a class action challenging the policy.
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May 25, 2012
Chartis Accused Of Failing To Cover $17M Ponzi Loss
Chartis Inc. was hit with a suit in Texas federal court Thursday claiming that the insurance giant wrongfully denied coverage of $17 million lost by an electrical manufacturer unwittingly caught up in a $670 million Ponzi scheme.
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May 25, 2012
NY Judge Won't Remand $350M Life Insurance Dispute
A New York federal judge on Friday declined to remand to state court a dispute over $350 million in life insurance policies between a religious organization and a West Indies-based trust.
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May 25, 2012
2nd Circ. Keeps Alive UN Wall Collapse Suit Against Namibia
The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that the southern African nation of Namibia is not immune from an insurance suit brought by USAA Casualty Insurance Co. for alleged violations of New York City building code that led to third-party property damage.
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May 25, 2012
BofA Told To Turn Over Even More Docs To MBIA
A New York state judge ordered Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide units Thursday to turn over more documents about its internal fraud investigations to monoline insurer MBIA Inc., rejecting Countrywide's gripe that it had already produced 12 million pages of documents.
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May 25, 2012
Travelers Wants To Duck Coverage Of Realtor Copyright Suits
Travelers Casualty Insurance Co. of America asked a California federal court to declare it does not owe coverage for copyright suits against the operators of a real estate listing website because the site's operators willfully infringed the copyrights of the two rival companies that sued.
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May 24, 2012
Judge OKs Lehman Ex-Execs' $90M Payout To Investors
A New York federal judge on Thursday approved a $90 million settlement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executives and a proposed class of Lehman investors, after previously balking at the settlement, which will be paid by insurance policies while letting directors and officers off the hook.
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May 24, 2012
Mergers Can Start Noncompete Clocks, Ohio Court Says
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a merger sets a noncompete agreement in motion when the deal makes no provision for its continuation after a merger, refusing to let an insurance services provider enforce its predecessors' contracts with employees.
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May 24, 2012
States Limit Sharing Of Surplus Line Taxes
States participating in the Nonadmitted Insurance Multistate Agreement have adopted the so-called Kentucky proposal, which excludes most casualty surplus lines premiums from being allocated across state lines, NIMA said Thursday.
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May 24, 2012
More UK Insurers Fear Missing EU's Solvency II Deadline
A growing number of U.K. insurers are worried about the insurance industry's ability to meet a January 2014 deadline for complying with Solvency II, a major overhaul of insurance regulations in the European Union, according to a study Deloitte LLP released Wednesday.
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May 24, 2012
ACE Objects To Hostess' ADR Plan For Tort Claims
ACE American Insurance Co. demanded changes Thursday to Hostess Brands Inc.'s plan to handle tort claims outside of court, saying the bankrupt Twinkie maker's alternative dispute resolution process needs to comport with its insurance policies.
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May 24, 2012
$55M Suit Claims Blue Cross Shorted Texas Hospitals
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia Inc. withheld payments for health services after claiming they would be covered, two hospitals allege in a suit seeking at least $55 million in damages that was removed to Texas federal court Wednesday.
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May 24, 2012
MBIA Blasts Banks' 'Chutzpah' For Attacking $5B Breakup
MBIA Inc. came out swinging Thursday at the banks who want to undo New York insurance regulators' approval of the monoline insurer's $5 billion restructuring, berating them for challenging it after getting federal bailouts during the financial crisis.
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May 24, 2012
Senate Passes Last-Minute, Short-Term NFIP Extension
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a 60-day stopgap extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, which was set to expire next week.
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May 24, 2012
Judge Refuses To Let Insurer Exit FTC Health Marketing Suit
A federal judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss claims made by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Co. and executives from health care nonprofit Consumer Health Benefits Association for deceptive marketing of a medical discount plan.
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May 24, 2012
Frontier Insurance Denied Approval Of Rehabilitation Plan
A New York state court on Thursday denied approval for a plan of rehabilitation for the insolvent Frontier Insurance Co., saying the plan did not provide for payment to all the necessary claim holders.
Expert Analysis
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Insurers: New Tools To Remove CAFA Cases To Fed. Court
No federal court has publicly addressed whether the “legal certainty” test eliminated by the Jurisdiction and Venue Act should survive in Class Action Fairness Act cases — but a reasoned analysis suggests that it should not. Insurers may want to challenge the outmoded “legal certainty” standard in such cases to achieve easier removal from a state to a federal court, says Peter Moores of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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A Greater Focus On Pa. Long-Term Care Rate Regulation
An unprecedented opinion by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania denying the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s request to liquidate two long-term care insurance companies has brought issues surrounding rate regulation to the forefront — and marks the first time a petition to liquidate an insurance company has been defeated in Pennsylvania, say Michael Nelson and Molly Lang of Nelson Levine de Luca & Hamilton.
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A Short Primer On The Personal Profit Exclusion
Many liability insurance policies contain personal profit or illegal profit exclusions, and, while the intent of such exclusions is clear, the application is not as straightforward. There are some coverage issues that may arise and key questions that should be addressed when analyzing the applicability of the personal profit exclusion, say Eric Caugh and Elizabeth Kniffen of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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Force Placed Insurance: A Coverage Lifeboat?
In Alvarado v. Lexington Insurance Co., the Texas Court of Appeals has thoroughly examined the issue of whether a homeowner, subject to "force placed" insurance, has any rights in the policy obtained by his lender. This issue is likely to have increasing prominence for lenders — and their insurers — as the correspondence between the mapped flood plain and reality becomes more and more in error, says Wylie Donald of McCarter & English LLP.
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Best Practices For Corporate Social Responsibility
As with many industries, the legal services industry has adapted to the demand for sustainability practices. An effective Corporate Social Responsibility program will manifest itself in all strategic planning, from best firm employee practices and environmental sustainability to providing legal services, recruiting and retention of employees, business development, marketing and philanthropy, says Howard Dakoff of Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC.
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A Powerful Weapon In An Insured's Arsenal: Bad Faith
Policyholders seeking to recover under a first-party property policy after a catastrophic loss will not be surprised at an insurer’s lengthy and unjustifiable delay. In the past, a policyholder has too often been without a remedy for such tactics — but now, Mave Enterprises Inc. v. Metropolitan Adjustment Bureau Inc. provides the powerful club of bad faith, says Robert Chesler of Lowenstein Sandler PC.
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Va.'s Steadfast Ruling On What Is (Not) An 'Occurrence'
The law of unintended consequences looms large in the global warming debate — and the Virginia Supreme Court's decision in Steadfast v. AES is no exception. The declaratory judgment case is considered a bellwether with respect to insurance companies’ duty to defend climate-change lawsuits, says John Nevius of Anderson Kill & Olick PC.
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Evolution Of Coverage For Construction Defect Claims
A decision from the New Jersey Appellate Division in Potomac Ins. Co. v. Pennsylvania Mfr’s Assoc. Ins. Co., a case arising from an underlying construction defect claim, highlights the need for policyholders and their counsel to be aware of potential inter-insurer claims that may survive an insurer-policyholder settlement, say Lynda Bennett and Andrew Zimmerman of Lowenstein Sandler PC.
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Rethinking Common Wisdom Of 'Wage And Hour' Insurance
Although the best strategy to avoid a devastating wage and hour class action is to carefully review your employment practices with a qualified attorney, an often overlooked component of a company’s protection from the financial consequences of such a claim is its insurance policies, say Barry Buchman, Kami Quinn and Jason Rubinstein of Gilbert LLP.
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'Managing' LLC Liability Under Ore. Workers' Comp Law
The Oregon Court of Appeals has held that the exclusive remedy provision of Oregon’s workers’ compensation law does not shield an employer limited liability company's managing member from a negligence claim by the LLC’s injured worker. But the court began its analysis by incorrectly framing the issue and ignoring the distinction between members of a member-managed LLC and members of a manager-managed LLC, says Doug Batey of Stoel Rives LLP.