The education sessions of the 2021 Summer Membership Meeting began with “A Look at the Legal Landscape” of COVID-19 Business Interruption (“BI”) claims, presented by John O’Bryan, Partner, Freeborn & Peters, Michael Merlo, Executive Vice President and Chief Counsel, Aon, and Kay E. Wilde, Director of Reinsurance Assumed Claims, Allstate Insurance Company. The panel treated … [Read more...] about A Look at the Legal Landscape
Legal Case Law
Reinsurance Arbitration Awards – An Uphill Battle?
A long-running dispute between Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company and one of its reinsurers, Everest Reinsurance Company, recently culminated in the unsealing of an award from an arbitration to which Everest had not been a party. Everest was able to obtain this result despite the fact that Penn National had withdrawn its petition to confirm the award (and … [Read more...] about Reinsurance Arbitration Awards – An Uphill Battle?
Uncertainty > Risk: Lessons for Legal Thought from the Insurance Runoff Market
Abstract: Insurance ideas inform legal thought: from tort law, to health law, to theories of distributive justice. Within legal thought, insurance is often conceived as an ideal type in which insurers distribute determinable risks through contracts that fix the parties’ obligations in advance. This ideal type has normative appeal because, among other reasons, it explains how … [Read more...] about Uncertainty > Risk: Lessons for Legal Thought from the Insurance Runoff Market
Same Virus, Different Outcomes
State and federal courts across the country are grappling with insurance coverage litigation, as insureds who suffered business losses due to government-mandated shutdowns look to their property insurers for relief. These cases present the following key issue for courts: does the alleged presence of the COVID-19 virus on property constitute physical damage to that … [Read more...] about Same Virus, Different Outcomes
When It Rains Pollution, Grab Your Umbrella
New York federal court holds that Hawaii’s “all sums” rule and “follow-the-settlement” provisions in reinsurance contracts obligated a reinsurer to reimburse a cedent where the underlying reinsured umbrella contract had a three-year term and the underlying insured settled an environmental claim for contamination spanning more than 44 … [Read more...] about When It Rains Pollution, Grab Your Umbrella