InsuranceRSS

  • November 19, 2009

    Willis Nets Needed Cash In $700M Gras Savoye LBO

    Willis Group Holdings Ltd. has struck a deal to shift a portion of its ownership stake in leading French insurance broker Gras Savoye & Cie to private equity firm Astorg Parters as part of a $700 million leveraged buyout transaction, giving Willis access to $160 million in cash and breathing room in its balance sheet.

  • November 19, 2009

    Conseco To Offer $230M In Stock To Pay Down Debt

    Conseco Inc. said on Thursday that it will offer up common stock worth roughly $230 million as the insurance company looks to pay down its debt in the wake of financial losses.

  • November 19, 2009

    Manulife Financial To Sell $2.37B In Stock

    Manulife Financial Corp., Canada's largest life insurer, has announced plans to sell up to CA$2.5 billion ($2.37 billion) in common shares to finance future acquisitions and beef up its capital to “fortress” levels.

  • November 18, 2009

    AFL Team's Workers' Comp Suit Sent To Arbitration

    A federal judge has ordered the owners of the Cleveland Gladiators Arena Football League team to arbitrate claims in a related lawsuit against a unit of American International Group Inc. over premiums for a workers' compensation policy, finding that the issues fall within the scope of the arbitration agreement.

  • November 18, 2009

    Congress Demands Health Insurers Explain Rate Hikes

    More than a hundred Democratic members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives called on the health insurance industry Wednesday to respond to allegations that insurers are planning steep premium rate hikes in 2010 in anticipation of health care reform legislation.

  • November 18, 2009

    House Committee OKs Breakup Of Too-Big-To-Fail Cos.

    A key U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday approved a plan to break up financial institutions deemed a threat to the financial system as a whole, even those that are deemed to be healthy and well capitalized.

  • November 18, 2009

    2nd Plaintiff Joins Milberg Negligence Action

    A second former client has joined in a putative class action accusing Milberg LLP and other firms of negligence leading to the decertification and dismissal of a securities class action against a subsidiary of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

  • November 18, 2009

    Continental Must Produce Docs In Cruise Outbreak Spat

    Continental Insurance Co., one of the insurers from which Pentair Water Treatment Co. is seeking coverage for $30 million it paid over an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease on a cruise ship, has been ordered to produce documents related to pollution exclusion clauses and to its affirmative defenses in the suit.

  • November 18, 2009

    Insurer Appeals Over Its Share Of Accident Settlement

    Federal Insurance Co. has appealed a decision that forced it to pay half of a $26.5 million settlement that was reached after a truck driver collided with a stalled vehicle on Route 1 in New Jersey.

  • November 17, 2009

    Insurer Disputes Coverage Of Amtrak Crane Accident

    Great American E&S Insurance Co. has asked a federal court for a declaration that it does not owe additional coverage to Amtrak for indemnification and defense against lawsuits filed by workers injured by a 2004 Amtrak crane accident at a tunnel site in Queens, N.Y.

  • November 17, 2009

    Class Cert. Denied In Allstate Claim Estimations Suit

    A federal judge has rejected a bid for class certification by Allstate New Jersey Insurance Co. policyholders alleging the insurer engaged in improper estimating processes and underpaid claims between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2004.

  • November 17, 2009

    Hartford Aims To Avoid Defending Fidelis In BMW IP Tiff

    Faced with insuring U.S. Fidelis Inc. against allegations brought by BMW AG of trademark infringement and false advertising, Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. has asked a federal judge to determine whether it has a duty to defend the warranty company against these types of claims.

  • November 17, 2009

    Joint Fault Doesn't Keep Indemnitor Off Hook: Ala. Court

    Alabama's highest court has ruled that an indemnitee can recover damages from an indemnitor resulting from the parties' combined fault, responding to a federal appeals court's questions in an insurance dispute over a cement worker's $5 million injury settlement.

  • November 17, 2009

    Fed Paid Too Much In AIG Bailout: Report

    The Federal Reserve Bank of New York failed to use its “considerable leverage” in negotiations in fall 2008 to reduce the amount of money it spent to help American International Group Inc. stay alive, according to a report assessing the U.S. government's involvement in the bailout.

  • November 17, 2009

    State AGs Back Health Insurance Antitrust Exemption

    Ten state attorneys general have thrown their support behind a bill authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that would end a decades-old antitrust exemption for health and medical malpractice insurers.

  • November 17, 2009

    Suit Says Health Insurance Distributor Stiffed Brokers

    A Texas health insurance broker has hit America's Health Care/RX Plan Agency Inc. with a proposed class action for allegedly cheating its contracted brokers out of commissions by submitting unintelligible and often false commission statements.

  • November 17, 2009

    Chubb Can't Shake Bad Faith Claim In Coverage Suit

    Chubb Custom Insurance Co. has failed in a second attempt to stay a counterclaim of bad faith brought by Grange Mutual Casualty Co. in a dispute over who should foot the bill for litigating and settling two class actions that accused Grange and other insurers of conspiring to shortchange policyholders.

  • November 16, 2009

    Mayer Brown Nabs Dewey Insurance Partner

    Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP partner Fred Reinke has joined Mayer Brown LLP's litigation department, where he will focus on insurance matters and international litigation.

  • November 16, 2009

    TIG Seeks Info In Reinsurance Spat With Travelers

    TIG Insurance Co. has asked a federal judge to force Travelers Indemnity Co. to produce documents and other information it has kept from discovery in its breach of contract suit over TIG's refusal to reimburse a portion of an environmental liability settlement between the plaintiff and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

  • November 16, 2009

    Travelers Settles With Vena Riley In Malpractice Spat

    Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. of America and Vena Riley & Deptula LLP have struck a settlement in a suit accusing the firm of malpractice in arbitration proceedings over the alleged breach of a construction contract by one of the insurer's surety bond holders.