Insurers of solicitors’ firms that have been intervened by the Law Society are not entitled to search through all the Law Society’s documents for evidence that would enable them to refuse an indemnity, the High Court has ruled. …
Read More UK: High Court Refuses to Give Insurer Access to a Firm’s Intervention Documents Held by the Law Society

H.R. 2609, the Insurance Information Act of 2009, was reintroduced into the U.S. House of Representatives on May 21, 2009 by Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-PA).  The act would establish the Office of Insurance Information (the “OII”).  A revised discussion draft of H.R. 2609, released on October 1, 2009, was the subject of a recent Congressional hearing and debated in the House Financial Services Committee on October 27, 2009. …
Read More Representative Kanjorski Attempts to Form an Insurance Information Office with Regulatory Powers

On Tuesday, October 29, 2009, New York State Insurance Department (“NYSID”) Superintendent James Wrynn announced that the NYSID entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) with the Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero de El Salvador (“SSF”), El Salvador’s insurance regulator. 

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Read More New York State Insurance Department Announces Cooperation Agreement with El Salvador

Allergan, Inc., the maker of the drug Botox, recently filed suit against the Food & Drug Administration, alleging that certain FDA regulations unconstitutionally restrict Allergan’s truthful speech regarding off-label uses of its drug. 

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Read More Botox Maker Files First Amendment Suit Against the FDA

In a recent decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, TIG Ins. Co. v. Global Int’l Reins. Co., Ltd., No. 09 Civ. 1289 (Aug. 7, 2009), the court ruled that an arbitrator’s decision to ignore certain evidence is not a proper ground for vacating an arbitration award. …
Read More Southern District of New York Confirms Arbitration Award Dismissing Fraud Claims on Summary Judgment

Stephen Prignano and Denise Kraft, of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP, have obtained summary judgment for Lexington Insurance Company (“Lexington”) in an insurance coverage dispute arising out of a salmonella outbreak caused by contaminated peanut butter. 

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Read More Delaware Court Holds that Endorsement Requires Exhaustion of Separate Retained Limits for Each Lot or Batch of Contaminated Peanut Butter

Join the Re Under 40s at their next event, Managing Capital in Today’s Insurance/R4einsurance Marketplace, sponsored and hosted by Towers Perrin, on December 1 in midtown New York. 

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Read More Re Under 40s Next Event – Managing Capital in Today’s Insurance/Reinsurance Marketplace

In Custom Hardware Engineering & Consulting, Inc. v. Assurance Company of America, No. ED 91441 (Mo.App.E.D. Aug. 11, 2009), a Missouri Appellate Court declined to consider any findings made by the court in an underlying matter in its analysis of whether a policy exclusion applied and precluded coverage. …
Read More Missouri Appellate Court Affirms No Duty to Defend Based on Allegations of Complaint Even if Allegations Groundless

In Everest National Insurance Company, et al. v. Robert Sutton, 07-Civ.-722 (JAP) (D.N.J. Oct. 14, 2009), the court dismissed five of Defendants’ counterclaims and three affirmative defenses on Plaintiff’s motion to dismiss. 

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Read More United States District Court Grants Insurer’s Motion To Dismiss In Case Involving Guaranties Of Reinsurance For Default Protection Insurance

On October 8, 2009, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in Corban v. USAA Insurance Company, holding that the anti-concurrent causation (“ACC”) clause in a homeowners’ insurance policy is inapplicable where both wind and water did not act in conjunction in causing Katrina-related damages. …
Read More Katrina: Mississippi Supreme Court Finds that an Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause In a Homeowners’ Insurance Policy Does Not Exclude Coverage for Loss Separately Caused by Wind and Water