InsuranceRSS

  • April 30, 2010

    Law Firms Prepare For Wave Of Health Care Work

    For better or worse, health care reform legislation is now the law of the land, and as companies scramble to comprehend the new rules, law firms are racing to get ahead of the curve and make the transition a smooth one for clients.

  • April 29, 2010

    Court Accepts Travelers' Business Loss Calculation

    A federal judge has sided with Travelers Indemnity Co. of Connecticut in a dispute over the methodology to use to calculate loss of business income under an insurance policy that does not specify a formula for the calculation.

  • April 29, 2010

    Perkins Coie Adds 6 Howrey Insurance Attys

    In a move that has effectively doubled the size of its full-time insurance practice, Perkins Coie LLP has added six insurance attorneys from Howrey LLP, including three partners, for its offices in Los Angeles and Washington.

  • April 29, 2010

    Allstate Challenges Wyeth Win In Ativan Coverage Suit

    Allstate Insurance Co. is contesting a district court’s ruling that the insurer must pay defense costs for foreign product liability litigation over the anxiety drug Ativan brought against Pfizer Inc. unit Wyeth Inc. during the 1980s and 1990s.

  • April 28, 2010

    Ruling Mixed In Coverage Spat Over $50M Oil Spill

    A federal judge has handed down a mixed ruling in a dispute between Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing LLC and two of its insurers over coverage for an 89,000-gallon oil spill in Kansas that the company says it has spent $50 million cleaning up since 2007.

  • April 28, 2010

    Homeowners' Defense Act Clears US House Panel

    The House Financial Services Committee has passed legislation to create a massive federal reinsurance fund to back up losses from catastrophic natural disasters in an attempt to bring down premiums for homeowners.

  • April 28, 2010

    WellPoint Ends Rescission, Delays Rate Hikes

    Bowing to pressure from federal regulators, WellPoint Inc. has said it will end its practice of dropping sick patients from health plans and has again delayed plans to hike premiums on members of its California subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross.

  • April 28, 2010

    House Panel Advances Flood Insurance Reauthorization

    A U.S. House of Representatives panel has advanced legislation that would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program for five years, in an effort to put a stop to a number of short-term extensions that have plagued the federal program.

  • April 28, 2010

    Vigilant Off Hook For Novell Defense In Unix Fight

    A federal judge has ruled that Vigilant Insurance Co. is not obligated to pay Novell Inc.'s defense costs in a dispute with another technology company over the rights to the Unix operating system.

  • April 27, 2010

    Liberty Owes For Dated Asbestos Claims: Insurers

    Century Indemnity Co. and TIG Insurance Co. are demanding that Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. help pay for decades-old asbestos claims facing a Massachusetts pump manufacturer, lodging a complaint Tuesday saying Liberty has shirked its duties under policies that date back as far as 1936.

  • April 27, 2010

    Biotest Contract Suit Over Nabi-HB Remains In Fla.

    A federal judge has shot down National Liability & Fire Insurance Co.'s attempt to dismiss, stay or transfer a suit accusing it of breaching contract by failing to pay for damage to a hepatitis B drug, paving the way for the case to continue in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

  • April 27, 2010

    High Court Nixes Class Arbitration In Stolt-Nielsen Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of petitioners including Stolt-Nielsen SA on Tuesday in a closely watched antitrust case that could have broad effects on arbitration, holding that imposing class arbitration on parties that haven't agreed to class arbitration conflicts with the Federal Arbitration Act.

  • April 27, 2010

    Pollution Exclusion Won't Help Hartford In Doe Run Suit

    Two Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. insurance units can't use their policies' pollution exclusions to bar coverage for underlying bodily injury claims in an insurance fight with lead producer Doe Run Resources Corp., a judge has ruled, deeming the exclusions ambiguous.

  • April 27, 2010

    Building Defect Coverage Suit Should Continue: Judge

    A magistrate judge has recommended that a district court reject Structural Masonry Inc.'s bid to dismiss three insurance companies' suit claiming they are not obligated to indemnify and defend the subcontractor and its general contractor against construction defect allegations raised in a state court action.

  • April 27, 2010

    Insurer's Request For Appraisal Granted On Appeal

    A Texas appeals court has ruled that a lower court abused its discretion by denying an insurance company's motion to compel an appraisal pursuant to the policy it issued in a lawsuit over insurance coverage for damage to a Ramada Inn caused by Hurricane Ike.

  • April 26, 2010

    High Court Weighs Attorneys' Fees In ERISA Actions

    Counsel representing an insurer fighting the bestowal of attorneys' fees to its opponent in a Employee Retirement Income Security Act case asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday exactly what type of judgment a party must win to be entitled to the award under ERISA.

  • April 26, 2010

    Appeal Lodged In Ohio Title Insurance Antitrust Action

    The plaintiffs in a consolidated class action accusing more than 20 title insurance companies of colluding to artificially raise the price of title insurance in Ohio have appealed a federal judge's decision to throw out their lawsuit.

  • April 26, 2010

    Lewis Brisbois Snags 16 Wilson Elser Attorneys

    Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has beefed up its New York office with a 16-lawyer group from Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP led by insurance defense litigator Gregory S. Katz.

  • April 26, 2010

    Insurers Pay $7.5M For Sierra Leone Mining Accident

    Titanium Resources Group Ltd., a mining company with operations in Sierra Leone that at one time accounted for 75 percent of the country's exports, said Monday it will receive $7.5 million from its insurers to settle a lawsuit seeking coverage for a mining accident.

  • April 26, 2010

    Federal Seeks To Toss Omega's $5M Coverage Suit

    Federal Insurance Co. has asked a judge to toss a suit brought against it by Omega Advisors Inc., which accuses its insurer of denying coverage for $5 million in losses the company suffered through the malfeasance of an employee who led Omega into a failed $140 million purchase of federal Azerbaijan privatization securities and allegedly skimmed money from the investment pool.