Mealey's Reinsurance : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Reinsurance

March 02, 2023
Dismissal Stipulated After Settlement Report On Last Claim In Suit Over EquityComp

OMAHA, Neb. — After the plaintiff in a dispute over the EquityComp workers’ compensation insurance program reported “agreement on the terms of a settlement,” a federal magistrate judge in Nebraska ordered a dispositive stipulation within a month, and the parties stipulated dismissal with prejudice on March 1.
March 02, 2023
Government Seeks Exclusion For Almost Half Of Class In ACA Reinsurance Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing that close to half the entities certified as members of a class are not true SISAs — self-insured, self-administered employee health and welfare benefit plans — the government filed an objection on March 1 in a U.S. Court of Federal Claims case concerning the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
March 02, 2023
Risk Management Association’s Suit Against Reinsurer Is Dismissed After Settlement

ORLANDO, Fla. — A self-insured intergovernmental risk management association’s breach of contract case against a reinsurer has been dismissed with prejudice after the parties filed a stipulation in Florida federal court saying they “have reached a settlement of all claims between them.”
March 01, 2023
Amendment And Dismissal Fought After Jurisdictional Discovery In Fraud Suit

WILMINGTON, Del. — Opposing recent motions in a case concerning an alleged scheme to transfer funds from a reinsurance trust to affiliated entities and “highly volatile hedge funds,” the plaintiffs tell a Delaware Chancery Court that the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute and certain defendants argue in part that a bid to file a fourth amended complaint “is procedurally improper, untimely, and futile.”
March 01, 2023
Reinsurance Commutation Figures In Franchisee’s Negligence, Fraud Action

JACKSON, Miss. — Alleging negligence, fraud and breach of fiduciary duties in connection with “a corporate insurance and risk management program promoted, created, and put in place by Defendants for Domino’s Pizza franchisees,” a franchisee sued a corporation, a limited liability company and the two individuals who are members of the latter in a Mississippi federal court.
February 28, 2023
Reinsurer Gets More Time To Respond To Dismissal Motion In Breach, Bad Faith Suit

PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Feb. 27 gave a plaintiff more time to respond to a dismissal motion in a breach and bad faith suit against an insurer and reinsurer, but said the parties’ stipulation to extend the deadline “raises many concerns.”
February 27, 2023
9th Circuit Reverses Ruling In Class RESPA Suit For Abuse Of Discretion

SAN FRANCISCO — Saying in a Feb. 24 unpublished memorandum disposition that the appellants in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) class action involving captive reinsurance agreements “could not have reasonably anticipated the need for their undisclosed evidence of economic injury,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a ruling the appellants argued “was tantamount to case-ending sanctions.”
February 27, 2023
Grand Jury Indicts Owner Of N.C. Insurance Cos. Over Alleged Fraud Scheme

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Alleging a fraud scheme in effect “at least” from roughly 2016 through 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice on Feb. 24 announced a grand jury indictment filed the previous day in North Carolina federal court against an individual who controlled multiple insurance companies, Greg E. Lindberg.
February 27, 2023
Self-Insurance Pool Case Recommendation Would Let Some Claims Survive Dismissal

DENVER — Opining that the plaintiff failed to plead that agreements at the heart of the dispute are assumption reinsurance, a Colorado federal magistrate judge made recommendations in a school district’s suit over liability claim settlements — specifically, that dismissal bids be partly granted and that two other pending motions be denied.
February 24, 2023
Unspecified Agreement For Settlement Reported On Last Claim In Suit Over EquityComp

OMAHA, Neb. — After the plaintiff in a dispute over the EquityComp workers’ compensation insurance program reported that the parties “have reached agreement on the terms of a settlement,” a federal magistrate judge in Nebraska gave them 30 calendar days to file a dispositive stipulation.
February 24, 2023
6th Circuit Won’t Certify Question On Ohio All-Sums Allocation Doctrine

CINCINNATI — Following an opinion in which a split panel upheld the challenged ruling concerning Ohio’s “all-sums” allocation doctrine on interlocutory appeal, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing en banc.
February 22, 2023
Summary Judgment Ruling Splits Out 1 Claim In Reinsurance Billings Dispute

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Saying in part that erosion is not like a house fire, an Alabama federal judge on Feb. 21 granted summary judgment in favor of the reinsurer in a ruling addressing just one claim in a complex breach of contract suit over reinsurance billings.
February 22, 2023
Reconsideration Of $585M Judgment Denied In Personal Guaranty Case

DURHAM, N.C. — Overruling objections in which the defendant again argued that assets in a trust account satisfy a reinsurance agreement, a North Carolina federal judge on Feb. 21 denied reconsideration of a judgment requiring the defendant to pay more than $585 million pursuant to a personal guaranty concerning that agreement.
February 16, 2023
Recommendation Would Mostly Grant Enforcement Of Summons In Microcaptive Probe

TAMPA, Fla. — Citing a recent 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision, a federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that a petition for enforcement of an Internal Revenue Service summons be mostly granted and an insurance consultancy’s motion to limit the summons be mostly denied.
February 16, 2023
Status Report Filed In Unjust Enrichment Suit Against Insurers In Rehabilitation

WILMINGTON, Del. — Pursuant to court order in an unjust enrichment suit filed against reinsurers and insurers in rehabilitation, joint liquidators for a hedge fund issued a quarterly status report to the Delaware Court of Chancery, regarding the liquidators’ fraud suit in a New York federal court related to the collapse of a purported $1 billion hedge fund now in liquidation.
February 15, 2023
Collapsed Hedge Fund Co-Founder Makes Contested Bid For Damages Offset

NEW YORK — In filings after a jury found a co-founder of the collapsed hedge fund Platinum Partners liable for a claim of fiduciary breach, the co-founder argues for the awarded compensatory damages to be offset to zero and the plaintiffs seek a judgment of $14,871,163.90.
February 15, 2023
Reinsurer’s Receiver Notes Mortality Info, Mentions Liquidation Possibility

WILMINGTON, Del. — Higher-than-expected mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other causes is expected to require revisions to a proposed rehabilitation plan, the receiver for Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc. in Rehabilitation (SRUS) tells the Delaware Court of Chancery in a Feb. 14 letter.
February 14, 2023
Amendment And Dismissal Sought After Jurisdictional Discovery In Fraud Suit

WILMINGTON, Del. — Following a Delaware Chancery Court directive for a status update in a case concerning an alleged scheme to transfer funds from a reinsurance trust to affiliated entities and “highly volatile hedge funds,” the plaintiffs moved for leave to file a fourth amended complaint, and certain defendants moved to dismiss for failure to prosecute.
February 14, 2023
Collateral And Judicial Estoppel Disputed In Insurer’s Suit Over Defense Costs

DETROIT — Opposing a reinsurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings that is based on collateral and judicial estoppel, an insurer argues in a Feb. 13 filing in Michigan federal court that the reinsurer “has omitted a number of important details” and neither doctrine applies in the declaratory judgment suit over defense costs.
February 13, 2023
Slander Suit Filed Against Former Reinsurance CEO Over Alleged False Statements

NEW YORK — Alleging false and defamatory statements and seeking actual and punitive damages plus interest and costs, a plaintiff filed an action for slander against the former CEO of a publicly traded reinsurance company.
February 13, 2023
Judge Denies Reinsurer’s Bid For Reconsideration Of $33M Awards Against Argentina

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 10 denied a reinsurer’s motion to reconsider dismissing its petition to enforce two arbitral awards worth $33 million against the Republic of Argentina for lack of jurisdiction, writing that the reinsurer improperly introduced new evidence and fails to establish that Argentina is an alter ego to a state-owned company that incurred debts in the underlying dispute.
February 13, 2023
GE: Investor Claims Properly Dismissed For Failure To Meet Pleading Elements

NEW YORK — A federal district court did not err in dismissing shareholder claims against General Electric Co. (GE) and certain of its former senior executives stemming from misstatements the defendants allegedly made regarding the company’s business and financial condition because the shareholders failed to sufficiently plead an actionable misstatement or omission or scienter as required under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA), GE and the former executives argue in an appellee brief filed in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
February 13, 2023
Summary Judgment On Takings Claim Sought In ACA Transitional Reinsurance Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With entry of judgment pending on an illegal exaction claim in a case concerning the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the government moved in U.S. Federal Claims Court for summary judgment as to a takings claim.
February 10, 2023
Judge: Entire Controversy Doctrine Does Not Apply In Environmental Claims Row

NEWARK, N.J. — Ruling that New Jersey’s entire controversy doctrine (ECD) does not apply and that numerous genuine issues of material fact remain in dispute, a New Jersey federal judge denied all competing bids for summary judgment in a suit over environmental investigation and remediation.
February 09, 2023
Dismissal Bid Disputed In Excess Loss Reinsurance Row With ERISA, Bad Faith Claims

PITTSBURGH — Parties in a suit over an excess loss reinsurance contract that was filed by a multiemployer plan that offers self-funded health insurance benefits and its trustees are disputing a dismissal motion, with filings in Pennsylvania federal court raising arguments including preemption and whether the defendants are fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.