According to a recent article in the New York Times, insurance and reinsurance companies from Japan and abroad, as well as hedge funds and other investors in catastrophe bonds, are expected to bear a relatively small portion of the losses stemming from the earthquake and resulting tsunami, which is expected to exceed $100 billion.  By way of comparison, the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan resulted in approximately $100 billion of damages, according to the Insurance Information Institute, but only about $3 billion of that was covered by insurance. 

According to a recent Reuters article, Cyclone Yasi is expected to cost insurers approximately AUS $3.5 billion in insured damage, according to Forecasting Service Tropical Storm Risk (“TSR”).  Cyclone Yasi, a maximum strength category five storm about the size of Italy, has drawn much comparison with Hurricane Katrina, which caused massive damage to New Orleans and surrounding states in 2005.  (Some estimate that the insured losses alone caused by Hurricane Katrina reached US $66 billion.) 

A study released November 3, 2010 by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and Risk Management Solutions (the “Study”) found that the Catastrophe Obligation Guarantee Act (S.886/ H.R.4014) (the “Proposed Legislation”) would only modestly increase insurance coverage for losses resulting from an earthquake in California. 

EAPD’s own Alan Levin, co-chair of the firm’s Insurance and Reinsurance Department, gave his thoughts on the insurance claims process and litigation resulting from the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Lee Pacchia.

To listen to this Podcast, please click here.

On October 16, 2009, in a lawsuit brought by owners of property along the Mississippi Gulf coast that sustained damage from Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the plaintiffs have standing to assert public and private nuisance, trespass and negligence claims against the defendants who caused the emission of greenhouse gases which are alleged to have ultimately added to the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina. 

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. 

On July 21, 2009, Judy and Michael Kodrin filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit decision vacating that portion of a Katrina-related judgment that awarded them penalties, damages and attorneys’ fees based on their homeowners insurer’s alleged bad faith.