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Archive for November, 2009

Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts: A Potpourri of Reinsurance Issues: Gulf Ins. Co. v Transatlantic Reins. Co. (1st Dep’t Oct. 1, 2009) (Part II of a Two-Part Post).

November 20th, 2009 Appellate Practice, Contract Interpretation, New York State Courts, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Reinsurance Comments Off on Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts: A Potpourri of Reinsurance Issues: Gulf Ins. Co. v Transatlantic Reins. Co. (1st Dep’t Oct. 1, 2009) (Part II of a Two-Part Post).

Introduction

In Part I of this two-part post (here) we discussed the background and procedural history of Gulf/Transatlantic and how New York’s Appellate Division, First Department resolved the issues of:  (a) the amount of reinsurance accepted by Gerling; and (b) whether the trial court should have granted Gerling’s motion for summary judgment on Gulf’s reformation claim.  This Part II covers the remaining three issues whether:  (a) the 1998 First Union Policy “attached” to the 1999 Treaty; (b) Gerling reinsured the policies Gulf issued to a subsidiary of the General Electric Company; and (c) Gerling established a question of material fact concerning whether it was entitled to rescind the 1999 Treaty.    Continue Reading »

Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts: A Potpourri of Reinsurance Issues Courtesy of Gulf Ins. Co. v Transatlantic Reins. Co. (Part I of a Two-Part Post)

November 17th, 2009 Appellate Practice, Contract Interpretation, New York State Courts, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Reinsurance, Rescission and Reformation 1 Comment »

Introduction

Today we look at a reinsurance case recently decided by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York’s intermediate appellate court for cases originating in New York County (Manhattan) and certain other counties in the New York metropolitan area.  We would not characterize Gulf Ins. Co. v Transatlantic Reins. Co., ___ A.D.3d ___,  2009 NY Slip Op. 06788 (1st Dep’t Oct. 1, 2009) (copy here), as a ground-breaker, but it involves a number of interesting  issues, including the interpretation and construction of a quota share treaty, course of performance, reformation and rescission. 

Substantive reinsurance cases are a relatively rare breed to begin with (especially in recent years), and cases that discuss a broad range of issues in some depth are rarer still.  That makes Gulf/Transatlantic worthy of some attention, especially to those interested in learning a few reinsurance law basics.  Hat tip to my friend and former colleague James P. Tenney for bringing the case to our attention.

Continue Reading »

More Posts, Please!

November 14th, 2009 General Comments Off on More Posts, Please!

We owe our readers an apology.  The press of business has been, well, particularly pressing over the past week or so, and we have not posted anything in over a week. 

Please be assured that there are posts in the works and that pretty soon we will be churning them out at a respectable rate once again.  

Stay tuned….

Global Arbitration Review Publishes Article on Hansen v. Everlast and Quotes Philip J. Loree Jr.

November 3rd, 2009 Arbitrability, Authority of Arbitrators, Awards, Functus Officio, New York Court of Appeals, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, Uncategorized, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Comments Off on Global Arbitration Review Publishes Article on Hansen v. Everlast and Quotes Philip J. Loree Jr.

Readers may recall our recent post on the New York Court of Appeals’ decision in Re Joan Hansen & Co v. Everlast World’s Boxing Headquarters Corp., ___ N.Y.3d ___, slip op. (Oct. 15, 2009), a case which demonstrates how important the parties’ submission is in determining arbitral authority.  The Court held that, after an award, a party cannot reopen an arbitration proceeding to request that the arbitrators decide an issue that had not previously been submitted to the arbitrators.  A copy of our post is here.  

On November 2, 2009 Kyriaki Karadelis of the U.K.-based trade publication Global Arbitration Review (“GAR”)  (website here) wrote what I thought was a concise and insightful article on the case.  And we would have said that even if she had not quoted some of our comments in her article!  But she did, and we’re flattered by that. 

With Global Arbitration Review’s permission, and with the required copyright disclaimer, we have posted the article as a “Slide Share Presentation” in my LinkedIn profile, which you can view by clicking here.  Also posted there (again with GAR’s permission and the required disclaimer) is a Global Arbitration Review Article on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision in  ReliaStar Life Ins. Co. v. EMC National Life Co., ___ F.3d ___, ___ (2009) (Raggi, J.) (blogged here and here), in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that an arbitration panel was authorized to award under the bad faith exception to the American Rule attorney and arbitrator fees to a ceding company in a case where the parties had agreed that “[e]ach party shall bear the expense of its own arbitrator.  .  .  and related outside attorneys’ fees, and shall jointly and equally bear with the other party the expenses of the third arbitrator.”  We reported on GAR’s article concerning ReliaStar case here, which also quotes some of our comments on that case. 

We ask our readership to remember that GAR is a subscription-only publication and that it has copyrights in these posted materials.  GAR has authorized us to post them online and distribute them for marketing purposes, but that authorization does not extend to others not similarly situated.  Please do the right thing and respect GAR’s copyrights — GAR has to make a living just like the rest of us!