Mealey's Reinsurance
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May 16, 2024
U.S. High Court: With Request, Arbitrable Dispute Must Be Stayed, Not Dismissed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A case involving an arbitrable dispute must be stayed and not dismissed pending arbitration where a party has requested a stay, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 16 in a case brought by delivery drivers against the individual owners and managers of Intelliserve and related corporate entities (together, Intelliserve).
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May 16, 2024
Reinsurer’s $3.2M Appeal Bond Is Approved In Breach Of Contract Dispute
DALLAS — After entering an amended final judgment against a reinsurer for $2,866,423.97, including attorney fees and interest, a Texas federal magistrate judge granted the reinsurer’s unopposed motion for approval of a $3.2 million appeal bond and to stay execution and enforcement of the judgment pending resolution of its appeal.
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May 16, 2024
Judgment For Government Is Entered On Last Claims In Microcaptive Penalty Row
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Noting that the settlement terms include a tax attorney’s “payment of $5,200,000, inclusive of payments already made,” a Florida federal judge granted a joint motion for entry of judgment for the federal government on the remaining claim and counterclaim in a dispute over penalties for the tax attorney’s purported promotion of abusive tax shelters in the form of microcaptive insurance companies.
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May 16, 2024
Parties In Reinsurance Estoppel Row Brief Arbitration Arguments In 7th Circuit
CHICAGO — Parties to reinsurance agreements who disagree on the effects of prior arbitration are wrangling in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with the appellee arguing in its response brief that whether estoppel applies to the dispute “is an issue reserved for the arbitrators,” not “a threshold arbitrability question reserved for courts.”
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May 15, 2024
Sanctions Imposed, Strike Bid Denied In Reinsurer’s Breach Of Contract Case
FORT WORTH, Texas — Days after ordering a reinsurer’s attorneys to read certain materials and imposing a monetary sanction of $950, a Texas federal judge on May 14 entered a text-only order granting the other party’s motion to substitute counsel in the reinsurer’s lawsuit over allegedly inflated provisional commissions and breach of various agreements.
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May 15, 2024
On Appeal, Parties Argue Property Interest In ACA Reinsurance Takings Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing primarily that the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) “did not implicate a cognizable property interest,” the government filed an appellee brief urging the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm rulings against two self-insured group health plan trusts.
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May 15, 2024
Reinsurer Seeks Approval Of $3.2M Appeal Bond In Breach Of Contract Dispute
DALLAS — After entry of an amended final judgment against it for $2,866,423.97, including attorney fees and interest, a reinsurer filed a notice of appeal and an unopposed motion for approval of a $3.2 million appeal bond and to stay execution and enforcement of the judgment.
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May 14, 2024
4 Entities Hurt By Vesttoo Collapse Sue China Construction Bank, Others For Fraud
NEW YORK — Asserting that they were some of the “biggest victims” of the alleged fraud underlying the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd., entities including Porch Group Inc. and Homeowners of America Insurance Co. (HOA) sued China Construction Bank Corp. (CCBC) and related parties in a New York federal court for fraud and negligent supervision and retention.
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May 08, 2024
COMMENTARY: Bad Faith As A Substitute For Prejudice In Reinsurance Late Notice Disputes
By Robert M. Hall
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May 13, 2024
2nd Circuit Dismisses Arbitrator Bias Appeal As Moot After Award Is Made
NEW YORK — After being informed that an arbitration award issued the day before oral argument was scheduled to occur mooted the appeal, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel had the parties appear for a brief discussion and then on May 10 dismissed the case, also ordering that the lower court’s ruling be vacated.
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May 13, 2024
Citing Jury Verdict, Plaintiffs Seek Attorney Fees From U.S. In Microcaptive Row
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Following a Florida federal jury ruling against the government in consolidated cases over whether the plaintiffs’ involvement with purported microcaptive insurance companies constituted promotion of abusive tax shelters, the corporate plaintiffs are seeking approximately $600,000 in attorney fees and costs, and the government is countering in part that its position was “substantially justified.”
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May 13, 2024
Parties Brief Summary Judgment Arguments On Reinsurance Loss Allocation
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In renewed briefing, parties in a suit over multiple reinsurance disputes make summary judgment arguments on a single breach of contract claim, with the reinsurer arguing that the loss for the lawsuit at issue “was properly ceded to the two impacted Treaties” and the insurer contending that the policy requires the two events at issue in the lawsuit “to be treated as one Wrongful Act.”
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May 10, 2024
Defendants Renew Dismissal Arguments In Workers’ Comp Reimbursement Dispute
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — After an Alabama federal judge allowed the plaintiff to file an amended complaint in a dispute over reimbursement for workers’ compensation claims, the defendants started a new round of dismissal briefing regarding breach of contract, bad faith, laches and equitable estoppel claims.
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May 09, 2024
English Court Rules For Claimants In Dispute Over Agreement’s Clause
LONDON — Ruling in Bermudian companies’ dispute over a clause in a reinsurance framework agreement (RFA) on May 9, an English judge said he understands that means “there is an overall sum payable to the Claimants of US$6,523,015.”
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May 08, 2024
Timeliness, Other Issues Raised Over Motion For Final Judgment, Certification
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Arguing in part that “if an interlocutory appeal were to be sought, it should have been sought in 2022,” a reinsurer urged an Illinois federal court to deny a motion in which a railroad company seeks “two alternative grounds for appellate jurisdiction” in a suit over mine subsidence claims.
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May 08, 2024
Lockheed Martin Moves To Dismiss ERISA Suit Over Pension Risk Transfers
GREENBELT, Md. — Moving to dismiss one of a quartet of similar recent putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Lockheed Martin Corp. told a Maryland federal court that the retirees are receiving all the benefits they are due and fail to state their claims.
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May 02, 2024
Liquidators Stipulate To Dropping Insurers From Adversary Proceeding
NEW YORK — The joint provisional liquidators (JPLs) of Bermuda insurer and reinsurer PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd. (PBLA) and other debtors filed a May 1 stipulation in New York federal bankruptcy court to dismiss four defendants called the NC Insurance Cos. from an adversary proceeding that involves hundreds of other parties; the JPLs also stipulated to the withdrawal of a related appeal.
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May 02, 2024
Alleging They Were Defrauded, Investors File Related Suits Over $65M Deal
In related complaints filed in Florida and New York state courts over a December 2021 deal, entities that say they invested about $65 million in a managing general agent just months before affiliated insurance companies were liquidated allege that they were defrauded.
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May 01, 2024
Summons Provided For Owner Of Insolvent Insurers In Dispute Over LLC Conversion
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Puerto Rico-based life insurer provided a Delaware state court with a copy of a summons to be served on a Delaware-based entity and its owner, Greg Lindberg, who also owned insolvent insurers, in a suit alleging that Lindberg unlawfully converted the entity from a corporation into a limited liability company as “part of a systematic plan to siphon off assets held by a reinsurance trust” created to protect the Puerto Rico insurer and its policyholders.
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May 01, 2024
Government, Health Plans Brief Tolling Opt-In Class Cases In ACA Reinsurance Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In supplemental briefing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in consolidated cases over allegedly illegal exactions made under the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), group health plans and the government agree that there’s a dearth of case law on American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling for opt-in classes.
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May 01, 2024
$42.1M Attorney Fees, Final Approval Sought In Class ACA Reinsurance Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — None of the 357 class members has objected to a $169,022,397.28 settlement that would resolve part of a lawsuit over the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) or a request that class counsel get 25% of that amount for attorney fees, the class representative told the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in a reply brief.
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April 30, 2024
Shareholders To 3rd Circuit: Revive Securities Case Against Reinsurer, Execs
PHILADELPHIA — Arguing in part that one holding “invented a ‘total eclipse’ standard lacking any basis in” Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Dist. Council Constr. Indus. Pension Fund, shareholders filed an appellant brief challenging discovery and summary judgment rulings in a suit over allegations that a reinsurer and some of its former executives violated federal securities laws.
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April 30, 2024
After Reinsurer Reveal, Parties Dismiss Breach, Bad Faith Suit Over Settlement
NEW ORLEANS — A breach of contract and bad faith suit that the owners and operators of an offshore supply vessel filed against an insurer, an excess insurer and reinsurers was dismissed without prejudice on April 29 in Louisiana federal court under a granted joint motion.
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April 26, 2024
Judge Denies Reconsideration Of Partial Summary Judgment In Malpractice Dispute
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Saying that legal issues “regarding joinder of the reinsurers as real parties in interest . . . cannot form the basis for reconsideration” because they were not raised before the partial summary judgment ruling at issue, an Illinois federal judge denied an insurer’s motion in a suit over alleged legal malpractice.
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April 26, 2024
New York Panel: Forum- Selection Clause In EquityComp Case Is Unenforceable
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Noting the “many” such cases in various states over the EquityComp workers’ compensation program, a New York state appellate panel affirmed a lower court’s refusal to enforce a forum-selection clause and its refusal to dismiss five causes of action.