My most recent Expert Commentary on Reinsurance has been posted on IRMI.com. It covers a brief overview of AI and reinsurance. I hope you like it. You can access the commentary here.
AI and Reinsurance
Author: Larry P. Schiffer, Schiffer Law & Consulting PLLC
After 38-years with boutique and global law firms, Larry P. Schiffer launched an independent legal and consulting practice, Schiffer Law & Consulting PLLC, where he provides services as a lawyer, counselor, consultant, mediator, arbitrator and expert witness. He practices commercial, insurance, and reinsurance litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He provides advice on a wide variety of insurance and reinsurance issues, including claims and disputes, policy wording analysis and drafting, insurance insolvency issues, due diligence for transactions and have insurance or reinsurance components, insurance and reinsurance education and other advice. He is available to appear for clients outside of NY at mediations and conferences as needed on a per diem basis. He is active in legal and trade associations where he has held various leadership positions. He has lectured and has been widely published on reinsurance and other insurance topics. He serves as an Expert Commentator on reinsurance for IRMI.com and co-authored the chapter on reinsurance in the New York State Bar Association’s Insurance Law Practice treatise. He is the editor of the ARIAS•U.S. Quarterly. Mr. Schiffer received his J.D. from Albany Law School, where he graduated cum laude, was a member of the Albany Law Review and a member of the Justinian Society, and received his B.A. magna cum laude from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was admitted to practice in New York in 1980.
Pesky Facts Result in a Denial of Summary Judgment in a Post-Settlement Allocation Case
Since the 1970s cedents and reinsurers have been battling over long-term environmental pollution damage. Disputes have arisen over the number of retentions that the cedent should take, the manner in which settlement with the insured should be allocated and other issues. In a recent case, a reinsurer sought summary judgment on a cedent’s breach of contract claim over a specific pollution claim. Unsurprisingly, disputed facts got in the way.
Continue reading “Pesky Facts Result in a Denial of Summary Judgment in a Post-Settlement Allocation Case”Back-to-Back and Belly-to-Belly: Coextensive Reinsurance Coverage
My latest IRMI.com Expert Commentary on Reinsurance discusses the concept of back-to-back reinsurance. You can access the commentary here.
Cedent Prevails on Back-to-Back Reinsurance Recovery
Settlement allocations of long-tail losses like pollution claims have long been a source of disputes between cedents and reinsurers. Often the allocation of the underlying settlement depends on the allocation methodology used based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction. The issue becomes more complicated where the reinsurance contract is governed by the law of a different jurisdiction that may not use the same allocation methodology. In a recent case, the United States Circuit Court for the Second Circuit addressed this issue where the cedent claimed back-to-back reinsurance and the reinsurer rejected the allocation methodology.
Continue reading “Cedent Prevails on Back-to-Back Reinsurance Recovery”Washington Federal Court Grants Motion to Compel Arbitration
Recently, I wrote a reinsurance commentary for IRMI.com on reinsurance issues with captive, pools and other risk-sharing entities. Coincidentally, in January 2023, a Washington federal court had to deal with a risk-sharing pool’s claims of breach of a reinsurance contract and a reinsurer’s motion to compel arbitration.
Continue reading “Washington Federal Court Grants Motion to Compel Arbitration”Reinsurer Loses First Motion to Dismiss
A reinsurance contract is typically an agreement between a ceding insurer and a reinsurer, which affords no rights of third parties, including underlying insureds to access the reinsurance contract. Typically, an insured cannot bring a direct action against the reinsurer because there is no contractual privity. But sometimes, in some reinsurance relationships, the actions of the reinsurer, whether contractual or not, may open the door for a direct action.
In court, at the pleading stage, sometimes the reinsurer’s motion to dismiss a complaint is superseded by the insured’s motion to amend the complaint. That happened in late 2022 in a federal court in Arizona.
Continue reading “Reinsurer Loses First Motion to Dismiss”Court Finds No Personal Jurisdiction in Reinsurance Dispute and Dismisses Case
Believe it or not, jurisdictional questions still arise in reinsurance disputes that find their way to court. While those who arbitrate disputes under contractual arbitration clauses do not typically have these issues, there are plenty of reinsurance agreements without arbitration clauses. Courts cannot just take a case without determining whether the court has jurisdiction over the parties.
In a recent case, a Nebraska federal court granted the cedent’s motion to dismiss a declaratory judgment action for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Continue reading “Court Finds No Personal Jurisdiction in Reinsurance Dispute and Dismisses Case”Captives, Pools, and Reinsurance—Oh My!
My latest IRMI.com Expert Commentary on Reinsurance has been published. You can view the commentary here. This commentary is on reinsurance issues that come up when reinsurance captives, pools and other risk-sharing entities.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Certifies COVID-19 Question to the California Supreme Court
While insurers have been successful in dismissing most COVID-19 property damage claims, especially in federal court, many of the coverage issues that arise in federal court actions are resolved based on state law. When a federal court finds that resolution of a dispute is governed by state law and that there is no controlling state law precedent, the court may certify the state law question to that state’s supreme court for resolution.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Certifies COVID-19 Question to the California Supreme Court”Arbitration Clause Upheld In Coverage Dispute
Coverage disputes between US policyholders and non-US insurers like Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London continue to raise jurisdictional and related issues in US courts. The issues become further exacerbated when there is an arbitration clause in the insurance contract and the non-US insurer seeks to stay the coverage litigation and compel arbitration under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention), to which the US and the UK and most EU countries are signatories.
In a recent case, a Louisiana federal court, hearing the case after removal from the state court, granted the insurers’ motion to stay litigation and compel arbitration.
Continue reading “Arbitration Clause Upheld In Coverage Dispute”