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In a recent decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Apple & Eve, LLC v. Yantai North Andre Juice Co., Ltd., No. 07-CV-745 (JFB)(WDW) (E.D.N.Y. April 27, 2009), the Court found that the defendant had waived its right to arbitration, thereby rendering the arbitration clause null and void under Article II of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”). 

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Read More E.D.N.Y Rules that Party Waived Right to Arbitrate in China

On May 21, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals heard en banc oral argument on its ruling in Safety National Casualty Corp. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, No. 06-30262 (5th Cir. Sept. 29, 2008) that the New York Convention overrides a Louisiana statute prohibiting arbitration clauses in insurance contracts. 

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Read More Fifth Circuit Hears En Banc Oral Argument on whether New York Convention Is “Reverse Preempted” by Louisiana Statute

The insured, a security firm operating in Iraq under contract with the U.S. government, was sued by former Iraqi detainees and their survivors for allegedly torturing prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and other detention centers in Iraq.  The insured, in turn, sought defense and indemnity coverage for the lawsuits under its commercial general liability protection policies, which obligated the insurer to defend and indemnify the insured against any suit for covered injuries or damage. 

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Read More Fourth Circuit Holds that Insurer Is Not Obligated to Defend Security Firm in Lawsuits Alleging Torture of Iraqi Prisoners by Its Employees

Certain entities (“Petitioners”) provided Respondents with advice to minimize taxes from the sale of their company.  See Arthur Andersen LLP, et al. v. Carlisle, et al., 129 S.Ct. 1896 (May 4, 2009).  As part of the tax shelter that was ultimately created to accomplish this goal, certain Respondents entered into investment-management agreements with Bricolage Capital LLC, which specified that “[a]ny controversy arising out of or relating to [the agreements] or the breach thereof, shall be settled in arbitration conducted in New York, New York.” 

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Read More U.S. Supreme Court Finds that a Nonsignatory to an Arbitration Agreement May Invoke Section 3 of the FAA to Stay an Action in Favor of Arbitration, and is Entitled to an Interlocutory Appeal of an Order Denying Such a Motion

The American Hospital Association last week submitted a comment letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging the Committee not to reduce hospitals’ Medicare payments to help fund health care reform.  Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had made that suggestion, among others, on May 18 in a health reform policy paper prepared prior to the Committee taking up the matter this month. …
Read More AHA to Senate: Don’t Cut Medicare Payments

A recent report by Families USA, an advocacy group, said that the average family pays $1,000 a year more for health insurance premiums to subsidize the cost of health care for the uninsured.  The average individual pays $370 more per year.  This cost-shifting becomes necessary whenever someone who doesn’t have medical insurance receives care at a hospital emergency room, clinic or physician’s office and then doesn’t pay for the care. …
Read More U.S. Health Insurance Costs Subsidize the Uninsured

New York’s highest court recently held that an exclusion for “earth movement” in a property policy did not exclude coverage for damage to the policyholder’s building that resulted when excavation of the adjacent lot caused earth to slide away beneath the insured building. 

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Read More New York Court of Appeals: Earth Movement Exclusion Does Not Apply to Damage Caused by Adjacent Lot Excavation

On Thursday, May 28, 2009, it was announced that Eric Dinallo, Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department (“NYSID”), intends to resign effective as of July 3, 2009.  Dinallo has accepted a position as a visiting professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. …
Read More New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo Resigns

On May 21, 2009, Representative Ron Klein (D-FL) reintroduced the Homeowners’ Defense Act of 2009, H.R. 2555 (the “Act”), which would allow states to join a national catastrophe insurance pool and would potentially reduce the cost and improve the availability of homeowners’ insurance in Florida and in other states.  As we reported here, the Act is similar to the legislation previously passed in the House, but failed to gain Senate support in 2007 and 2008. 

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Read More Representative Ron Klein (D-FL) Reintroduces the Homeowners’ Defense Act

The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently reversed a trial court and held that an insurer did not have a duty to defend under parents’ homeowners’ policy because coverage for childrens’ act of shooting at passing trucks on a highway was barred by the policy’s intentional acts exclusion. 

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Read More Tennessee Court of Appeals Holds That Intentional Acts Exclusion Bars Coverage for Children Shooting at Trucks on Highway