A New York federal court recently held that a reinsurer, and not the court, had the authority to appoint a replacement arbitrator, even though the reinsurance agreement at issue did not specify a method to do so. …
Read More Reinsurer, and Not Court, Should Select Replacement Arbitrator

As we originally reported here, the Connecticut Legislature’s proposed bill, S.B. 11, An Act Concerning the Rate Approval Process for Certain Health Insurance Policies, if enacted, would expand the current rate approval process as administered by the Connecticut Department of Insurance for proposed increases of 10% or more for health and long-term care insurance.  The bill has recently passed both the House and the Senate in the legislative body’s third attempt to get such a bill to the governor’s desk. …
Read More Connecticut Health Insurance Rate Increase Symposia Law Passes Through Legislature to Governor’s Desk

Late last month, the Tennessee legislature passed the “Amended and Restated Tennessee Captive Insurance Act” (HB 2007/SB 1540) (the “Act”) in an effort to increase its attractiveness as a domiciliary state.  The Act amends the current law by authorizing the formation of sponsored captive insurance companies (including protected cells), branched captive insurance companies and special purpose financial captives. …
Read More Tennessee Passes Legislation to Revamp Captive Insurance Laws

A recent Business Insurance article reported that Japanese insurers have paid almost $2.27 billion to cover approximately 125,000 claims associated with earthquake damage to personal dwellings stemming from the March 11 tsunami and earthquake that devastated Japan.  According to the General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ), the number of claims is expected to increase as efforts continue to restore heavily damaged areas of the country. …
Read More Personal Dwelling Losses Top $2 billion in Japan

The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend legal professional privilege (LPP) to other professionals besides lawyers. In the case of Prudential PLC and Prudential (Gibraltar) Limited v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and Phillip Pandolfo (HM Inspector of Taxes) [2009] EWHC 2494, Prudential argued that the existing rule of LLP should be extended to advice on tax law given by accountants. …
Read More UK: Law Society Granted Permission to Intervene in Legal Professional Privilege Case at Supreme Court

On June 8, 2011, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the appointment of Assemblyman Jonathan Bing to serve as Special Deputy Superintendent of the New York Liquidation Bureau, an agency tasked with protecting policyholders and creditors of insurance companies that have gone bankrupt.  Bing steps in as the successor to Dennis J. Hayes, who was appointed to the position in September 2009. …
Read More Governor Cuomo Appoints Assemblyman Jonathan Bing to Head New York Liquidation Bureau

The Commercial Court has held that an aviation contractor was not entitled to the value of aircraft engine parts that were being refurbished by a subcontractor because the subcontractor’s obligations ended when the sub-contract was terminated. …
Read More UK: Aviation Contractor Cannot Recover Value of Parts from Saudi King’s Jet

KEY STAKEHOLDERS CONTINUE TO EXPRESS ACO CONCERNS

As the comment period for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) proposed rule to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) draws to a close, major stakeholders continue to express serious concerns and doubts with the proposal as currently written. …
Read More ACO Update

The process of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking,” was first used commercially by Halliburton in 1949. It involves injecting millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, deep into the ground at high pressure in order to break up dense shale rock formations and release trapped natural gas to the surface.  The risks associated with hydrofracking, however, are numerous and diverse, affecting every stage of the process from transporting and drilling to waste storage and disposal. …
Read More “The Risks of Hydrofracking” and “Insurance for Hydrofracking”

In Arash Shipping Enterprises Company Limited v Groupama Transport, the Court of Appeal considered the impact of Council Regulation (EU) No.961/2010 (the Regulation) on a contract of insurance. The Regulation aimed to impose restrictive measures against Iran “with a view to supporting the resolution of all outstanding concerns regarding Iran’s development of sensitive technologies in support of its nuclear and missile programmes“. …
Read More UK: Court of Appeal Considers Impact of Iran Sanctions Order on Contract of Insurance