judge's gavel and books

Stay of Action against Insurer under First-to-File Rule

Court: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.

Plaintiff filed an action alleging take-home exposure from asbestos fibers while living with her grandfather, who was a welder for 40 years at Avondale Shipyards.

The plaintiff was diagnosed with lung cancer, which she alleged resulted from asbestos exposure from asbestos fibers brought home on her grandfather’s work clothing from her birth in 1962 until 1982, when her grandfather retired from the shipyard. The action was removed to federal court and amended to add numerous additional defendants, …

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Bankruptcy Stay Applies to Direct Actions against Insurers in “Limited Circumstances” where Numerous Asbestos Claims are Pending

U.S. District Court, Middle District of Louisiana, October 19, 2022

The plaintiffs brought a wrongful death and survival action for damages related to the death of their decedent in 2019. Decedent had a forty-five year career as a welder in the marine industry which was alleged to have resulted in his exposure to asbestos. The plaintiffs sought damages from numerous defendants, including Decedents former employers, owners of work sites, asbestos manufacturers and distributors who were alleged to have provided products to decedents worksites, and insurers. …

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Court of Appeals Court

Summary Judgment against Reinsurer Affirmed where Exhaustion and Attachment Point Provisions were Ambiguous

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, September 15, 2022

Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Onebeacon Ins. Co., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 25863

            Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company (“Fireman’s Fund”) issued three excess insurance policies to ASARCO, Inc., in 1983 and 1984, which functioned as layers of a coverage tower assembled for ASARCO. Two of the Fireman’s Fund policies provided $20 million in coverage for losses in excess of $30 million, one in 1983 (“policy 1”) and the other in 1984 (“policy 2”). …

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judge's gavel and books

Summary Judgment Granted for Insurer Where Plaintiff Failed to Establish Injury Occurred in Policy Period

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, August 3, 2022

Originally filed by Decedent prior to his passing related to mesothelioma, Plaintiffs were substituted as the parties in a wrongful death claim brought against Travelers Indemnity Co. (“Travelers”), among other defendants, under Louisiana’s direct actions statute, La. R.S. § 22:1269. Decedent was a vessel inspector for American Bureau of Shipping (“ABS”) who inspected vessels to determine if they met classification requirements at various shipyards from 1970 to 2006. Defendants removed the action pursuant to federal officer …

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judge's gavel and books

Plaintiffs’ Judgment Covered in Part under Excess Policies, Subject to “All Sums” Allocation

Supreme Court of New York, Monroe County

Meissner v. Ridge Constr., Inc., 2022 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 310

After obtaining a jury trial verdict of $8 million on November 19, 2019, in an action for asbestos exposure in 1970-71 resulting in mesothelioma against Ridge Construction, Inc., a former subsidiary of Eastman Kodak, the plaintiffs filed an action under New York Insurance Law § 3420 (the coverage action) in an effort to collect the judgment under three excess insurance policies issued by certain underwriters at Lloyd’s of …

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Plaintiffs Win Summary Judgment, Recover Judgments from Excess Insurers that Previously Settled or Bought Back Policies

The plaintiffs, seeking payment of judgments entered against a supplier of raw asbestos fiber to employer of the plaintiffs’ decedents under New York Insurance Law § 3420 and a declaration that insurance companies’ transfer of insurance funds to the supplier constituted fraudulent conveyances in violation of New York Debtor Creditor Law, filed several actions against defendant insurers. The defendants filed motions for summary judgment seeking dismissal, and the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment on New York Insurance Law § 3420 as to all defendants and …

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Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Grants Motion to Stay as to All Parties Where Insurer for Certain Defendants Declared Insolvent

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, July 15, 2021

In an action by the plaintiff, former employee of a shipyard, for injuries related to asbestos inhalation and subsequent mesothelioma, the shipyard’s insurer moved to stay all proceedings due to the insurer’s being placed into liquidation in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania as a result of insolvency.

Bedivere Insurance Company, which included by merger Lamorak—the insurer for the several defendants in the action—was declared insolvent and placed in liquidation in March 2021. The …

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Federal Court Holds Underlying Policies Exhausted by Settlement; Grants Summary Judgment to Insurer on Excess Policy Reinsurance Claim

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, October 19, 2020

An insurer and its reinsurer were involved in a dispute over the reinsurer’s liability to reimburse a portion of a settlement that the insured had allocated to an excess liability policy subject to a contract of reinsurance. The insurer had issued three excess liability insurance policies to Asarco Inc., as part of a “coverage tower,” sequential layers of insurance Asarco purchased as part of its annual insurance program. The reinsurer reinsured the …

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