KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One week after a federal magistrate judge in Kansas lifted a stay of a consolidated lawsuit brought by primary and excess managed care organization errors and omissions insurers disputing coverage for antitrust class actions, an insolvent excess insurer on Nov. 16 filed an unopposed motion to substitute another insurer to assume responsibility for the claims and defenses that are alleged by and against it.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal judge on Oct. 23 found lack of subject matter jurisdiction regarding allegations by former affiliates of an insolvent insurer that Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt tortiously interfered with contracts, granting dismissal of the suit without prejudice under the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
NEW ORLEANS — Following a Louisiana federal judge’s administrative stay of an asbestos liability lawsuit from the date a Pennsylvania court declared one of the defendant’s insurers insolvent, another defendant on Nov. 10 asked that two other defendants’ motions for summary judgment be deferred until plaintiffs can be substituted as a party in an asbestos liability lawsuit.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Nov. 8 stayed a trustee’s sale of life insurance policies in which an investor owned fractional interests pending the investor’s appeal of an earlier ruling that asset purchase agreements (APAs) affirm rather than preclude the trustee's ability to sell policies retained by investors.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan appeals panel held Nov. 9 that a lower court did not err by granting summary disposition in favor of Michigan Property & Casualty Guaranty Association (MPCGA) in a lawsuit arising from MPCGA’s refusal to pay benefits under a worker's disability compensation insurance policy that was issued by a now insolvent insurer, finding that “the MPCGA can only be an insurer of last resort” and “cannot be the first-priority insurer ahead of” a no-fault insurer for a semi-truck.
NEW YORK — A New York federal bankruptcy judge on Nov. 8 ordered law firms that represented or represent Bermuda insurer and reinsurer PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd. (PBLA) to comply with a turnover order, noting a determination that PBLA’s attorney-client privilege belongs to PBLA’s joint provisional liquidators.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Allowing a supplemental answer would cause undue delay and inconvenience and would not promote speedy resolution of a man’s case alleging exposure to asbestos at a shipyard, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana said Oct. 6 in denying a motion to amend without prejudice.
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals panel on Nov. 2 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of a law firm and its attorney arising from clients’ claims that they would have been able to collect a $2 million judgment against an insolvent insurer but for the law firm and attorney’s lack of due diligence in obtaining a $3.5 million default judgment against a contractor, finding that whether the law firm committed malpractice was irrelevant because the clients’ could not have won their insurance case.
ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals panel on Nov. 3 vacated a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool that relieved it of its duty to issue payments on a pending workers' compensation benefits claim, finding that Georgia’s State Board of Workers' Compensation has jurisdiction over the Insolvency Pool's claims.
NEW ORLEANS — Because it will include defenses that did not arise until after an insurer’s insolvency, a defendant in an asbestos case may amend its answer, a federal judge in Louisiana said Oct. 28.
NEW ORLEANS — Two defendants in a twice removed asbestos case are entitled to file supplemental answers and defenses in light of their insurer’s insolvency, a federal judge in Louisiana said Oct. 28.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Insurance Guaranty Association (NCIGA) on Oct. 19 filed a notice of appeal of a North Carolina federal court’s ruling that granted the secretary of Health and Human Services and federal agencies’ motion to dismiss its lawsuit challenging the reporting requirements under the federal Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) statute.
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 8 dismissed an appeal by the Chapter 7 trustee for an insurer and its subsidiaries of a lower federal court’s reversal of a bankruptcy court’s order granting his objection to the Internal Revenue Service’s claim seeking administrative priority for tax obligations arising in the year of a bankruptcy filing after the suit was partially remanded to the federal court with instruction to remand to the bankruptcy court for approval of a settlement.
DALLAS — After adopting a magistrate’s judge report that recommended dismissing a Texas attorney’s lawsuit seeking unpaid attorney fees from a holding company that provided commercial vehicle insurance through an insurer that was declared insolvent and put into liquidation, a federal judge in Texas on Oct. 18 entered judgment in favor of the defendant.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Defendants’ counsel on Oct. 18 reported the death of one of the co-defendants in a commercial auto insurer’s lawsuit filed in a Georgia federal court seeking a declaration that there is no coverage for the insured, its owners and an employee for an underlying $112,466.57 personal injury default judgment.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina on Oct. 1 announced deadlines for discovery in a lawsuit filed by three insurers in rehabilitation seeking to recover $14.5 million from a borrower under a loan agreement for its alleged breach of contract in failing to make a first interest payment.
CHICAGO — A federal magistrate judge in Illinois on Oct. 5 issued a qualified protective order in a lawsuit alleging that insurance brokers breached their duty of care because they knew or should have known that a multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) was not in compliance with its structural requirements and was not financially sound.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A trustee on Oct. 15 submitted a status report regarding the wind down of the Mutual Benefits Keep Policy Trust in a Securities Exchange Commission lawsuit alleging that the defendants fraudulently sold investment interests in life insurance policies, reporting that he has received an additional $1.5 million in restitution funds that will continue to be used to subsidize the administrative fees payable by the fraud victims who hold investments in keep policies.
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge on Oct. 15 held the bankruptcy court is not reverse preempted from determining whether disputed funds are part of an estate because, at its base, a lawsuit involves a contract dispute that will determine the owner of the disputed funds, further finding that an insurer’s special deputy receiver has failed to establish cause for lifting an automatic stay.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Objecting class members on Oct. 1 appealed the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ judgments granting attorney fee awards for class counsel of insurers in a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that the U.S. government owes the insurers millions of dollars under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk-corridor program.