InsuranceRSS

  • April 16, 2010

    Insurance Suit Numbers Hold Steady In 1st Quarter

    Despite a surge of litigation over Chinese drywall and financial-meltdown related claims, insurance lawsuit filings showed almost no increase in the first quarter of 2010 from the last three months of 2009, according to a Law360 review of federal court data.

  • April 16, 2010

    Insurers Off Hook In Bug Repellent False Ad Suit

    The insurers for Buzz Off Insect Shield LLC, a maker of insect repellent clothing, had no duty to defend the company against a false advertising suit brought by bug spray maker S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., the Supreme Court of North Carolina has ruled.

  • April 16, 2010

    Congress Reauthorizes Unemployment, Flood Benefits

    Congress has acted to approve another short-term authorization measure extending national flood and unemployment insurance and benefits, following a series of delays that allowed the programs to lapse during the first weeks of April.

  • April 16, 2010

    Lexington Wins Forum Choice In Coverage Feud

    A federal judge has tossed Premium Financing Specialists of California Inc.’s declaratory action against Lexington Insurance Co. in favor of the insurer’s competing suit to recover $700,000 contributed toward Premium’s defense costs in a putative consumer class action.

  • April 16, 2010

    Rising Star: Kasowitz's Adam Ziffer

    As a lawyer for corporate policyholders whose claims have been denied, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP's Adam Ziffer frequently faces off against 20 or 30 insurance companies. Against such formidable defendants, he has brought home multimillion-dollar settlements for a Philips Electronics North America Corp. unit in an asbestos exposure coverage case and for a Gotham Organization Inc. shopping center in an environmental liability case, making him one of Law360's 10 insurance lawyers under 40 to watch.

  • April 16, 2010

    House Bill Would Insure Ponzi Feeder Fund Victims

    Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee are sponsoring legislation that would extend federal investor protection and insurance coverage to all Ponzi scheme victims, including indirect investors bilked by participating in so-called feeder funds.

  • April 15, 2010

    Liberty Asks Court To Tap Arbitrator For Equitas Spat

    Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. has asked a federal judge to step in and appoint a third arbitrator so that a pending arbitration proceeding against Equitas Insurance Ltd. over sums Liberty paid to defend a coverage case brought by The Scotts Company LLC can move forward.

  • April 15, 2010

    Judge Tosses American National Suit V. JPMorgan

    A federal judge has dismissed American National Insurance Co.'s suit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. over losses the insurance company said it sustained after purchasing bonds from Washington Mutual Bank, which JPMorgan snapped up from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after WaMu's catastrophic collapse in 2008.

  • April 15, 2010

    Travelers, St. Paul Dodge Bank's Madoff Coverage Spat

    Travelers Cos. Inc. and St. Paul Mercury Insurance Co. have won dismissal of a bank's suit over defense costs related to losses from Bernard L. Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme following a judge's ruling that the policy's insolvency exclusion bars coverage.

  • April 15, 2010

    Insurer Wants Quick Appeal In $7M MedAssets Suit

    Federal Insurance Co. has asked a judge to allow it to bring an interlocutory appeal in a $7 million breach of contract case that MedAssets Inc. filed over Federal's alleged failure to cover the cost of defending Guidant Sales Corp.'s suit over the disclosure of pacemaker pricing information.

  • April 15, 2010

    Insurers Will Try To Dodge Spending Reforms: Report

    Too high a percentage of the billions of dollars a year Americans pay for health care goes toward administrative expenses, though insurers are already taking steps to hide this, a U.S. Senate report has found.

  • April 15, 2010

    MetLife Settles ERISA Payment Probe For $13.5M

    Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $13.5 million to settle allegations it violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to disclose extra fees it paid to a San Diego insurance broker to push MetLife's group insurance products.

  • April 15, 2010

    Zurich Unit Settles $20M Suit With Deere Dealer

    An insurance subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services Ltd. has settled an indemnification suit with J&D Implement Inc., a John Deere dealership that was recently ordered to pay more than $20 million in a nasty dispute that pitted a sister against her two brothers.

  • April 15, 2010

    Rising Star: Dewey & LeBoeuf's Allison Tam

    When insurers need to obtain regulatory approvals for major deals like Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.'s $11.8 billion acquisition of Travelers Life & Annuity, they turn to Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP's Allison Tam, making her one of Law360's 10 insurance lawyers under 40 to watch.

  • April 15, 2010

    Fraud Suit Over Superfund Trust Payouts Remanded

    Finding that the case satisfied the local controversy exception to the Class Action Fairness Act, a federal judge has remanded a mass action against a raft of insurers, appraisers and Oklahoma state officials that alleges collusion and fraud in the distribution of payouts to homeowners for relocations from an Oklahoma Superfund site.

  • April 14, 2010

    NYC Fights Judge's Denial Of $575M WTC Settlement

    New York City and several construction contractors have appealed a judge’s decision not to approve the $575 million settlement between WTC Captive Insurance Co. and 10,000 rescue, recovery and debris removal workers who sued the city over injuries after Sept. 11.

  • April 14, 2010

    Sens. Grill Holder On Securities, Health, Antitrust

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder faced skeptical questions on securities, health care and competition issues at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, with senators questioning whether the U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement efforts were strong enough.

  • April 14, 2010

    Wyndham Wants Insurer's Plane Crash Suit Tossed

    Wyndham Worldwide Operations Inc. has asked a federal judge to throw out a coverage lawsuit brought by Illinois National Insurance Co. over a 2008 plane crash that claimed five lives in Oregon.

  • April 14, 2010

    Insurer, Tannery Spar Over Pollution Defense

    A battle between Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and a tanning business it insured in the 1980s is heating up, with both parties filing motions for summary judgment over whether Liberty Mutual must defend the tanning company in more than a dozen pollution lawsuits.

  • April 14, 2010

    Counsel Accused Of Improper Conduct In Fraud Case

    Advanced Spine Centers Inc. and other defendants in an insurance fraud case have claimed that counsel for plaintiff Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance Co. had improper ex parte communications with four individual defendants, who gave Metropolitan affidavits in exchange for dropping them from the suit.