PITTSBURGH — As stipulated by all parties, a Pennsylvania federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a dispute over a captive services agreement in which three breach of contract claims survived summary judgment.
HONOLULU — The plaintiff in a dispute over a purported reinsurance policy asked a Hawaii federal court to remand the case “in light of the double presumptions against removal jurisdiction and fraudulent joinder.”
NEW YORK — An insurer filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice regarding its complaint in New York federal court over allegations that two reinsurers breached contracts by not promptly paying all they owe.
ST. LOUIS — A federal bankruptcy judge in Missouri has denied a motion to dismiss an adversary proceeding concerning reinsurance collateral; the defendant had argued that the requested relief “is contrary to their contractual commitments,” and the plaintiffs contended in part that the motion sought “a determination of affirmative defenses that have not yet been pled.”
EASTLAND, Texas — Ruling in part that a federal court’s judgment that was rendered after a Texas trial court’s order and is being appealed “now precludes any determination on the issue of arbitrability in this court or in the court below,” a Texas appellate panel denied an interlocutory appeal in a dispute over whether a school district can be compelled to arbitrate under a reinsurance contract to which it is not a party.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 30 denied certiorari regarding similar rulings that two farms argued “present several fundamental questions about the relationship between private agreements and the FAA [Federal Arbitration Act] . . . in the context of contractual language that is found in every federally sanctioned crop insurance policy.”
CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who allege that a rival used a “well-established Playbook” to conduct an unlawful raid of their facultative reinsurance group asked an Illinois federal court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO), and the defendants countered that “[t]he only emergency is likely [the plaintiffs’] desire to unlawfully stifle competition.”
NEW CASTLE, Del. — A motion to compel insurers to produce documents relating to reinsurance communications and internal loss reserve information was granted in a Delaware court in a suit over more than $434 million in claimed losses after a landslide and explosion in September 2018 closed a natural gas pipeline for more than two years.
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on May 23 mostly denied dismissal of claims against a reinsurer in a breach and bad faith suit over water damage, ruling in part that the insured “has adequately stated a claim for bad faith against [the reinsurer] on a direct-liability theory, notwithstanding its admitted lack of contractual privity.”
NEW YORK — An English court has entered an anti-suit injunction regarding certain claims in a New York federal lawsuit over whether what the plaintiffs obtained for a facility in Afghanistan is insurance or reinsurance and whether any fraud or negligence was involved, and those claims have now been stayed in the U.S. court.
NEW YORK — In a May 22 ruling that represents its best guess as to what the United Kingdom Supreme Court would do, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld a decision against an English facultative reinsurer over all-sums allocation of an environmental claims settlement.
MINNEAPOLIS — At the parties’ stipulation, a Minnesota federal court dismissed a cross-claim and a counterclaim in an interpleader suit over excess collateral in an insurance-reinsurance program.
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for June 13 in a revival bid by relators who had stood to receive about $300,000 before the trial court granted the government’s post-trial motion and vacated judgment in the qui tam crop insurance case.
SEATTLE —A foreign reinsurer on May 15 filed an opposition to an interlocal cooperative’s bid for leave to add allegations in a declaratory judgment case over reimbursement for defense and settlement of suits alleging sexual abuse; instead, the foreign reinsurer asks a Washington state federal court to render judgment on the pleadings.
HONOLULU — After removing a dispute over a purported reinsurance policy to Hawaii federal court, an insurer has filed an answer with counterclaims, arguing that 23 historical claims were paid in full.
OMAHA, Neb. — After three defendants cited Pennsylvania liquidation proceedings in asking a Nebraska federal court for stays in a suit over the $157.2 million settlement National Indemnity Co. (NICO) reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures, NICO says in a May 15 filing that it does not oppose a stay against one of the defendants.
NEW YORK — Days after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed an enforcement action against a Brazilian reinsurance company over a false 2020 claim of substantial investment by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a New York federal judge has entered a consent judgment containing a permanent injunction but no monetary penalty.
CHICAGO — An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court’s determination that an insolvent insurer’s reinsurer seeking payment of a judgment for unpaid premiums, attorney fees and arbitration interest had a claim of a general creditor, rather than one for costs and expenses of administration, finding that based on statutory language and case law, the trial court correctly determined the reinsurer’s priority level.
LOS ANGELES — In a May 12 joint statement in California federal court, parties in a reinsurance billings suit involving dozens of claims outline the remaining claims and disputes to be tried, estimating that a jury trial will take 10 days.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Noting that the government’s earlier objection was withdrawn, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge on May 12 entered partial judgment under which the government will pay a class of 357 self-insured, self-administered employee health and welfare benefit plans (SISAs) a combined $185,230,024.42 in a suit over the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).