The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed the 2005 defense verdict in Miller v. Thane Int’l, Inc., one of the only instances to date in which a securities class action had actually been tried to a verdict. …
Read More Ninth Circuit Overturns Rare Securities Class Action Verdict

The California Court of Appeals recently upheld a trial court judgment rendering a policy void ab initio and awarding the insurer reimbursement of amounts it incurred in defending and settling the underlying litigation. …
Read More California Court of Appeals: Insurer Did Not Waive Right To Rescind Policy By Providing A Defense And Partial Settlement

U.S. Representatives Doris Matsui (CA – D.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (FL – R.) have cosponsored and recently introduced a bill to the House of Representatives, entitled The Safe Building Codes Act of 2007.  If enacted, the Bill would allow for approved states to each receive an additional 4% of federal disaster relief funds. …
Read More House Considers Bill Aimed to Strengthen State Building Codes

After a lengthy legal battle between New York’s Comptroller and the Superintendent of Insurance, New York’s highest court has held that the Comptroller may not exercise its audit powers over the New York Liquidation Bureau (NYLB) and may not audit funds/assets under the NYLB’s control. …
Read More New York Decision on NYLB Prohibits Comptroller Audit, Expounds on Private Role of Liquidator

As reported previously in this space here and here, OFC legislation (entitled the “National Insurance Act”) was resubmitted in the House and Senate earlier this year.  While testimony from the NAIC and various trade organizations was taken by the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises on October 3 and October 30, the current consensus is that no OFC legislation will be passed this year. …
Read More Treasury Review of Financial Services Regulation Renews Debate on OFC

Last month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I. CT) and Sen. John Warner (R. VA), respectively the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection, formally introduced to Congress “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007”, which if enacted, would empower the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a Federal program whereby the Environmentally Protection Agency would have the duty and authority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. 

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Read More Sen. Lieberman and Sen. Warner Introduce America’s Climate Security Act of 2007

New Hampshire’s highest court recently held that an insurance policy’s sexual molestation exclusion applied to claims for negligent supervision brought against the alleged perpetrator’s parents. …
Read More New Hampshire Supreme Court: Negligent Supervision and Negligent Entrustment Claims Were Excluded From Coverage By Sexual Molestation Exclusion

A federal court in California recently granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds that Netscape’s use of SmartDownload software, a software program designed to facilitate user downloads, was in fact an excluded “online activity” under the terms of the insurer’s general liability policy. 

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Read More Netscape’s Use of SmartDownload Software an Excluded “Online Activity”

On InsureReinsure.com, we strive to provide information about issues involving the insurance and reinsurance world and we rarely deal with criminal proceedings but there are instances, however, when alleged criminal activities become relevant to our industry.

We have blogged regularly about Richard (“Dickie”) Scruggs and the Scruggs Katrina Group, a group of attorneys representing thousands of policyholders in Katrina-related coverage disputes with their insurance companies.
Read More Dickie Scruggs Indicted for Attempting to Bribe a Judge

A New York state appeals court recently held that an insured’s statements made pre-litigation to an insurer’s investigator, as well as subsequent testimony in the investigation regarding those statements, are inadmissible hearsay. …
Read More New York State Appellate Court: An Insured’s Statements During and Regarding an Insurance Investigation Are Not Admissible at a Subsequent Hearing Under the Business Records Exception to the Hearsay Rule