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In The Kittansett Club v. Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co., No. 11-11385 (Sept. 10, 2012), the District of Massachusetts ruled that a D&O insurer does not owe defense or indemnity to its insured when the insured had a duty prior to committing the alleged Wrongful Act to pay the amounts at issue. …
Read More District Court Finds No “Loss” Under D&O Policy When Insured Had Pre-Existing Duty to Pay For Tips in Dispute in Underlying Lawsuit

REMEDI, the Re/Insurance Mediation Institute, has released its forms  for a Mediation Clause and a Mediation Agreement for reinsurance disputes.  These documents resulted from a process that included consultation with senior industry executives active in reinsurance disputes. …
Read More REMEDI Issues Form Mediation Clause and Mediation Agreement for Reinsurance Disputes

The case involved a class action filed by an annuity beneficiary alleging that the insurer sold his mother and similarly situated plaintiffs a deferred annuity that did not comply with disclosure requirements of individual annuity contracts pursuant to California Insurance Code (“CIC”) §§ 10127.10(c) and 10127.13.   …
Read More US District Court in California Holds That an Out-of-State Group Annuity is Not Subject to California’s Individual Annuity Disclosure Requirements

Edwards Wildman Speakers:  Joshua P. Broudy, Alexander G. Henlin

When fire or another casualty damages a commercial building, businesses may suffer financial hardship beyond lost income and costs to repair the property. In most situations, a prudent business owner is likely to incur expenses that fall outside the scope of those normally seen in the business’s day-to-day operations. The nature of those expenses is as varied as the circumstances of each loss. …
Read More Complimentary Edwards Wildman WEBINAR: REPLAY: US Treatment of Extra Expense Claims

Liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, otherwise known as the Superfund statute) is strict, and in most cases joint and several.  The total cost for Superfund clean ups can range into the hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. …
Read More Four Years Later: How Has BNSF Changed CERCLA Practice?

D&O carriers and brokers will want to keep October 2013 on their calendars.  At a hearing three weeks ago, a UK High Court judge set that month as the date for trial in Graiseley Properties Limited v. Barclays Bank PLC.  It is the first civil suit against a major UK bank concerning manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate to be allowed to proceed. …
Read More Barclays to Face First LIBOR Trial in October 2013

According to industry press, insurance linked security and catastrophe funds are reporting varying performance results stemming from Super Storm Sandy (the “Storm” or “Sandy”), with some funds reporting greater mark-to-market losses than others. …
Read More Insurance Linked Securities Industry Reports Varied Effects of Sandy on Fund Performance in October

Edwards Wildman Speakers:  John D. Hughes, Mary-Pat Cormier, Charles Proctor

This program will briefly address the origins of the LIBOR isue and the background facts allegedly supporting the LIBOR claims brought in the US; then the nature of those claims, the defendants, and the defenses asserted by those defendants; and then finally the types of insurances policies implicated by these claims; and the coverage issues which these claims will raise with respect to these policies. 
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Read More REMINDER Complimentary Edwards Wildman Webinar – LIBOR Litigation: Spotlight on Insurance Coverage

In a new decision, the Court of Appeals of Ohio ruled that a life insurer is under no duty to search the Social Security Death Master File (“DMF”) to independently determine on an annual basis whether policyholders deceased prior to the insurer receiving proof of death from beneficiaries or claimants.  See Andrews v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, No. 97891 (Ohio Ct. App. Oct. 25, 2012). …
Read More Ohio Court of Appeals Holds Life Insurer Has No Affirmative Duty to Search Social Security Death Master File

Seven years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans.  In the days that followed Katrina, we and others who focus on questions of insurance coverage debated whether the devastation in Mississippi and Louisiana had been caused by water or by wind.  We discussed slabs, anti-concurrent causation clauses, levees, efficient proximate cause, valued policy laws, and local and national political dynamics. …
Read More Sandy: Déjà Vu?