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?

In Refcomp SpA v Axa Corporate Solutions Assurance SA [Case C-543/10], the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU, previously known as the European Court of Justice) interpreted Article 23 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 on jurisdiction (the Article) to mean that where the general terms of a sale of goods contract incorporated a clause conferring jurisdiction, that clause could only be relied upon against the original parties to the contract. …
Read More Europe: The Opinion of the Advocate General on applicability of choice of law clauses in the context of subrogated claims

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 January 2012, we wrote about the landmark decision by the High Court in Jeremy Paul Egerton Hobbins v Royal Skandia Life Assurance Ltd & Anor., HCCL 15 of 2010. Following this case, the Hong Kong Confederation of Insurance Brokers (CIB), the Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA) and the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI) formed a Joint Task Force in late April to evaluate the present market practice in relation to the disclosure of commission received by an insurance broker (acting as the agent of the insured) from the insurer concerned. …
Read More Hong Kong: Regulatory Changes on Disclosure of Insurance Brokerage Commission to be Implemented on 15 April 2013