The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently conducted comparative testing on drywall manufactured in China and the United States.  As reported here, here, and here, Chinese drywall emits fumes that allegedly smell like rotten eggs, cause health problems and corrode metal in thousands of new homes built between 2002 and 2007.  Complaints have been registered nationwide but are concentrated in the Southeast, particularly in Florida. 

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Read More Chinese Drywall – Environmental Protection Agency Releases Preliminary Test Results

Last month, a federal district court in Alabama ruled, as a matter of first impression that, under Alabama law, a litigant seeking to pursue an insurance bad faith claim against an insurer must have a direct contractual relationship with that insurer. 

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Read More Alabama Federal Court: Third-Party Beneficiary to Insurance Policy May Not Pursue Bad Faith Claim

London’s marine insurance market announced recently that it has withdrawn maritime war-risk coverage for Venezuela (including Lake Maracaibo), as well as the nation’s “Exclusive Economic Zone,” which stretches up to 20 nautical miles off the South American country’s shores. …
Read More In Response to Expropriation, London Insurers Withdraw Maritime War-Risk Coverage as to Venezuela

June 30th is the deadline for filing a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”), Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1 for calendar year 2008. In general, an FBAR must be filed by any U.S. person who had either a financial interest in or signatory authority (or other authority) over one or more “financial accounts” in a foreign country if the aggregate value of all such accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the year. …
Read More Foreign Bank and Financial Account Reporting Requirements for June 30, 2009

Brazil’s insurance and reinsurance regulator, the Superintendencia de Seguros Privados (Susep), recently issued a report stating that that local reinsurance companies’ earned premium for the period January 2009 to April 2009 totaled R$ 1.3 billion (approximately US$ 661 million). 

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Read More Brazil: Susep Announces Reinsurance Results for First Four Months of 2009

On July 1, 2009, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers of FDA-approved drugs or medical devices doing business in Massachusetts or doing business with health care practitioners (“HCPs”) licensed in Massachusetts (regardless of where benefits are provided or expenditures are made) (“Companies”) must be in compliance with the Massachusetts Code of Conduct Law. This requirement is contained in regulations issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (the “DPH”) on March 11, 2009 (the “Regulations”). …
Read More Deadline Approaches for Compliance with Massachusetts Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturer Conduct Regulations

In Flexsys America LP v XL Insurance Co Ltd [2009] EWHC 1115 (Comm) the Claimant, Flexsys America LP (Flexsys) sought to recover the balance of its legal costs from the defendant XL Insurance Company (XL) under a Master Policy when its Local Policy (which covered Flexsys), taken out with XL Select, was exhausted. It also sought a declaration that it was entitled to be indemnified by XL in respect of the potential damages to a third party, Korean Kumo Petrochemical Company Limited (KKPC), and its costs of defence. 

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Read More UK: Interpreting the Drop Down Clause in a Master Policy

This week, the head of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“FLOIR”), Commissioner Kevin McCarty, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (“MoU”) with the German Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (“BaFin”), Germany’s integrated financial regulator responsible for regulatory oversight of the insurance, banking and securities markets. 

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Read More The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Enters Cooperation Agreement with Germany’s Financial Regulator