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Archive for the ‘Reinsurance Allocation’ Category

Time-on-the-Risk Allocation: Are Periods when Coverage is Unavailable in the Market Part of the Time-on-the-Risk?  

September 23rd, 2018 Absolute Pollution Exclusions, Allocation, Allocation of Settlements, Claims Handling, Follow-the-Settlements/Follow-the Fortunes, Insurance Contracts, Insurance Coverage, Long-Tail Claims, New York Court of Appeals, New York State Courts, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Arbitration, Reinsurance Claims, Reinsurance Litigation, Sudden and Accidental Pollution Exclusions Comments Off on Time-on-the-Risk Allocation: Are Periods when Coverage is Unavailable in the Market Part of the Time-on-the-Risk?  
TIme-on-the-Risk 1

TIme-on-the-Risk 1

We’ve discussed various issues concerning the allocation of asbestos or hazardous waste claims by insurers or cedents in situations where losses occur in multiple policy periods over time. (See here, here, & here.) Issues relating to allocation of such claims have, for many years, arisen in both insurance coverage cases and reinsurance litigation and arbitration, and they still do.

Earlier this year in Keyspan Gas East Corp. v. Munich Reins. Am., Inc., ___ N.Y.3d ___, N.Y. Slip Op. 2116 (March 27, 2018), New York State’s highest court held that, where applicable policy language contemplates a pro-rata time-on-the-risk allocation of loss, the damages or liability should be allocated over the entire period during which it occurred, including periods during which insurance was not available in the market because of exclusions or other reasons. While the outcomes it will generate are more favorable to insurers than policyholders, the Keyspan decision is sound and consistent with prior New York Court of Appeals cases on allocation and insurance generally. Given New York’s highest court’s historically excellent reputation for resolving insurance and reinsurance issues in an objectively fair and commercially reasonable manner, we suspect that Keyspan may prove to be an influential decision that other states will consider carefully when they are faced with questions concerning what should or should not be counted as part of the time-on-the-risk.

Time-on-the Risk Allocation: Contextual Background

Time-on-the-Risk 2

Time-on-the-Risk 2

Hazardous waste and asbestos claims are unique because the “injury producing harm is gradual and continuous and typically spans multiple insurance policy periods….” Keyspan, 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 2116, at *4. Typically the “environmental contamination” or asbestos injury “that occurred in any given year is unidentifiable and indivisible from the total resulting damages.” See 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. at 2.

Allocating a multi-policy-period loss in different ways can have very significant financial consequences to reinsurers and cedents, and insurers and their insureds. The amount of loss allocated to a given policy determines the applicability of deductibles, the exhaustion (or non-exhaustion) of limits, and the amount the insured is entitled to collect from the insurer under each policy. It factors into whether reinsurance retentions have been met or whether reinsurance contract limits have been exceeded. It can even determine whether certain insurers (e.g. excess or umbrella carriers) or reinsurers are responsible for any of the loss. Continue Reading »

One Per Occurrence Limit per Policy Period or One Per Occurrence Limit . . . Period? — New York Court of Appeals Reaffirms Noncumulation Clause Means what it Says  

December 2nd, 2014 Accumulation of Loss, Allocation, Allocation of Settlements, Anti-Stacking Provisions, Certificate or Treaty Limits, Claims Handling, Definition of Occurrence, Environmental Contamination Claims, Insurance Contracts, Insurance Coverage, Lead Paint Claims, New York Court of Appeals, New York State Courts, Noncumulation Clauses, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Reinsurance, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Claims, Timing and Number of Occurrences, Trigger of Coverage Comments Off on One Per Occurrence Limit per Policy Period or One Per Occurrence Limit . . . Period? — New York Court of Appeals Reaffirms Noncumulation Clause Means what it Says  

Introduction

Liability insurance policies written on a per occurrence basis generally provide coverage for losses that occur during the policy period and arise out of an “occurrence.” In general (and subject to policy definitions) “occurrence” means not only a temporally discrete accident or event, but also “continuous exposure” to the same harmful conditions. Such “continuous exposure” may occur during more than one consecutive policy period and cause what is, for all intents and purposes, indivisible, continuing injury or property damage. Examples of that type of continuous exposure resulting in continuing injury or damage include, among others, exposure of tenants to cracked or peeling lead paint in an apartment building for a period of years, exposure of persons to asbestos products, or exposure of groundwater to hazardous waste over a period of years, resulting in liability for clean-up costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) (a/k/a “Superfund”).

Issues concerning the timing and number of occurrences, and per-policy allocation of loss, are particularly important in coverage cases where continuous exposure to conditions spans multiple policy periods and causes continuing, indivisible injury or property damage during those periods. The liability insurer’s indemnity obligation is limited to a specified limit per occurrence. In a continuous exposure case, the “occurrence” happens continuously over a period during which multiple consecutive policies are in effect.. There is one occurrence—sometimes referred to as a “continuing occurrence”—but it takes place during each of several consecutive policy periods. Does that mean that the insurer is obligated to pay a maximum of one per occurrence limit for all loss that occurs during its total coverage period, irrespective of how many policies it issued during that period, or must it pay up to one per occurrence limit per policy for whatever portion of the loss falls, or is deemed to fall, within that policy?

The answer to that question can have significant economic consequences for the liability insurer, and, of course, its reinsurers. If a liability insurer issues a landlord three, consecutive one-year-term policies with per occurrence limits of $X, and a tenant sustains injury attributable to continuous exposure to cracked or peeling lead paint, then, all else equal, the answer will determine whether the insurer’s maximum total indemnity obligation is $X or three-times that amount ($X multiplied by the number of policies involved).

Continue Reading »

Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts: What is an Aggregate Extraction Clause?

August 10th, 2010 Accumulation of Loss, Aggregate Cover, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Reinsurance, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Claims Comments Off on Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts: What is an Aggregate Extraction Clause?

A.   Introduction

Over a year ago we ran a Reinsurance Nuts & Bolts feature entitled “Aggregate Extension Clauses”  (here).  To our considerable surprise, that article was, and remains, one of our more popular ones. 

At the close of the article we said (tongue in cheek):  “If you, the reader, have gotten this far, then perhaps you would like to delve into a discussion of ‘Aggregate Extraction Clauses.’  But these clauses – which conjure up some of the more frightening scenes from Marathon Man (1976) – are better left for another day.  .  .  . ”  Brace yourselves, for we fear that day has arrived.  .  .  .       Continue Reading »

Some Helpful Rules and Tips for Policyholders and Cedents Courtesy of Settlement Perspectives

December 15th, 2009 Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group, Follow-the-Settlements/Follow-the Fortunes, General, Negotiation, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Claims 1 Comment »

Our friend, colleague and fellow Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group member, John DeGroote, has written and published in his Settlement Perspectives blog an excellent article offering some very practical and sound guidance to corporate policyholders who are confronted with litigation that may fall within the scope of their liability insurance, and who desire to increase the odds of securing coverage.   John, who is President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of management and technology consulting firm BearingPoint, Inc. (formerly KPMG Consulting), was kind enough to seek our input on the article.  It is entitled Insurance Coverage: 4 Rules and 10 Tips for Policyholders, and features a link to a longer, more detailed article John co-wrote on the same subject for an Association of Corporate Counsel  (“ACC”) publication. 

When I read John’s draft the first thing that struck me was that the rules and tips he offers are, for all intents and purposes, applicable to cedents pursuing reinsurance recoveries.  He stresses, among other things, the importance of honesty, good faith, open communication and not colluding with the claimant in an effort to obtain coverage.  These attributes are ones to which diligent, ceded claims personnel should aspire in their dealings with their company’s reinsurers, because they tend to increase the odds of achieving a successful recovery and avoiding time-consuming and expensive reinsurance disputes (all other things being equal). 

John was also kind enough to quote my comments in his article, which are reproduced below: 

As I discussed these rules with Philip J. Loree Jr. at the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum the other day, I learned that they don’t only apply to policyholders –  apparently insurers must live by these same rules to collect from their reinsurers:

You would be surprised how frequently reinsurers contend that the carrier colluded with the policyholder in direct insurance coverage litigation.  If the reinsurer can establish collusion concerning the fact, amount or allocation of coverage, or if the reinsurer otherwise shows that the carrier acted in bad faith, then the reinsurer will usually be relieved of liability for the claim.  Like policyholders making direct insurance claims, carriers making reinsurance claims need to avoid even the appearance of collusion or bad faith, and following rules analogous to yours helps them do that.

Whether you happen to be a corporate or individual policyholder, or a cedent wishing to increase the odds of successfully collecting from reinsurers, John’s fine article comes highly recommended.   In fact if you are at all interested in settlement and ADR, we highly recommend that you follow Settlement Perspectives.  John writes high-quality, insightful and practical  articles on a variety of pertinent topics.  Who could ask for more?

House of Lords Hands Down Landmark Reinsurance Decision: Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Ltd.

August 22nd, 2009 Asbestos-Related Claims, Environmental Contamination Claims, Follow-the-Settlements/Follow-the Fortunes, House of Lords, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Claims Comments Off on House of Lords Hands Down Landmark Reinsurance Decision: Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Ltd.

Part II of a Two-Part Post

Introduction

In Part I we discussed the controversy surrounding the House of Lords decision in Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Co. [2009] UKHL 40.  The House ruled that two proportional facultative reinsurers were not obligated to indemnify the cedent for their share of the entire amount of a judgment a Washington State court rendered against the cedent in an environmental coverage action.  The judgment, which was based on Pennsylvania law, rendered the cedent liable under the policy jointly and severally for property damage caused by environmental contamination that occurred before, during and after the three-year policy period.  The House ruled that the reinsurers could be held liable only for their respective shares of the loss that occurred during the three-year term of the reinsurance contract (which was concurrent with that of the cedent’s policy), not their shares of the total amount of loss for which the Washington judgment held the cedent liable under the reinsured policy. 

In this Part II we briefly summarize the pertinent background of the case, walk the reader through the House’s reasoning and offer a few parting thoughts.      Continue Reading »

House of Lords Hands Down Landmark Reinsurance Decision: Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Ltd.

August 18th, 2009 Asbestos-Related Claims, Environmental Contamination Claims, Follow-the-Settlements/Follow-the Fortunes, House of Lords, Reinsurance Allocation, Reinsurance Claims Comments Off on House of Lords Hands Down Landmark Reinsurance Decision: Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Ltd.

Part I of a Two-Part Post

Introduction

Effective October 1, 2009 the House of Lords will be replaced by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (more information here).  In what may be among its last official acts, on July 30, 2009 the House decided an important reinsurance case concerning the scope of a reinsurer’s indemnity obligation to a U.S. cedent under English law.  See Lexington Insurance Co. v. AGF Insurance Co. [2009] UKHL 40.  The reinsurance contract was back-to-back with the reinsured policy in all but one respect:  it was governed by English law, while the insurance policy was, in the event of coverage litigation, potentially subject to the laws of any number of U.S. jurisdictions, depending on venue, applicable choice of law rules and other considerations.  Relying on a long-line of English law precedent, and distinguishing other precedent, the House ruled that a proportional facultative reinsurer was not obligated to indemnify the cedent for the reinsurer’s share of the entire amount of a judgment a state court in Washington rendered against the cedent.  The judgment resulted from a Washington Supreme Court decision which, applying Pennsylvania law, ruled that the cedent was jointly and severally liable under its policy for property damage caused by environmental contamination that occurred before, during and after the cedent’s three-year policy period.  The House said that, judgment or no judgment, the reinsurer agreed to reinsure only loss or damage occurring during the coterminous, three-year period of the reinsurance contract, and the reinsurer’s obligation was limited to its share of that loss. 

The House’s decision is likely to be controversial.  In this Part I of a two-part post, we shall discuss the controversy and seek to allay it a bit.  In Part II we’ll walk the reader through that reasoning and offer some parting comments. 

The Controversy

Complex environmental-contamination and asbestos-related claims are anything if not costly.  American insurers have been fighting an expensive, multi-front war with their insureds for many years over the scope and extent of their liability for these claims.  They raise a myriad of issues and are potentially governed by the laws of at least fifty different jurisdictions (some sympathetic to insurers, some not).   These jurisdictions have adopted different approaches to resolving the issues (some favorable to insurers, some not), which means that no matter where may be the venue, complex choice-of-law questions are likely to arise.  And the coverage actions usually involve multiple insurers, sites, claimants, years of coverage, and layers of coverage.  The amount at stake and the concomitant expense can be staggering.  For the most part, these claims and coverage disputes — let alone how some courts might resolve them — could not reasonably have been anticipated at the time when most of the occurrence policies on which they arose were written (generally prior to 1980 and sometimes going back to the 1930s).  Continue Reading »