Reinsurance & Arbitration Focus

Defendant Litong Capital LLC appealed from an order of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The district court denied Litong’s motion to compel arbitration of claims asserted by GP3 II LLC, having determined there was never a valid ...

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota denying defendant SUNZ Insurance Co.’s motion to compel arbitration of crossclaims asserted by Payday Inc. The district court held ...

QAD Inc. petitioned the Delaware federal court to confirm an arbitration award it obtained against Block & Company Inc. Block cross-moved to vacate the award. The arbitrator awarded QAD more than $740,000 in connection with a contract dispute between the ...

Linda Anderson sued Sarah Boyle alleging that Boyle breached her duties as trustee of an irrevocable trust to which Anderson and Boyle were beneficiaries. Boyle moved to compel arbitration, citing an arbitration clause in the trust. The lower court denied the ...

Stephanie Sotero Hernandez was killed in a car accident after leaving work at Baby Dolls Topless Saloons Inc. Hernandez’s estate filed a wrongful death suit against the club alleging it continued serving alcohol to Hernandez’s co-worker, the driver of the ...

Defendants appealed a California federal district court order denying their motion to compel arbitration of the plaintiff’s claims for trade secret misappropriation, common law misappropriation, and unfair competition. The issue was whether the ...

Plaintiffs, the Republic of Kazakhstan and Outrider Management LLC, filed suit in New York state court claiming the defendants conspired to obtain a fraudulent international arbitral award against them of nearly $500 million. The defendants removed the case ...

The Supreme Court of Maine has affirmed an order denying Uber’s motion to compel arbitration of claims that it and its subsidiary violated the Maine Human Rights Act. The action was filed after an Uber driver refused to drive plaintiff Patricia Sarchi, who is ...

Plaintiff, Principal Securities Inc., filed suit in Iowa federal court seeking to enjoin a FINRA arbitration proceeding commenced by the defendants. Despite there being no arbitration agreement between the parties, the defendants claimed Principal was ...

Plaintiffs, Certain London Market Company Reinsurers (LMRs), filed suit against Lamorak Insurance Co. seeking a declaratory judgment that they were not obligated to pay reinsurance billings ceded by Lamorak. The disputed amounts stem from various ...

Defendant SemGroup Corp. and intervenor-defendant Cypress Environmental Management-TIR appealed an Oklahoma district court order denying their motions to compel arbitration. The plaintiff, Robert Ferrell, was a Cypress employee. He and Cypress entered ...

In November 2021, the Texas Department of Insurance adopted new administrative reinsurance regulations relating to reciprocal reinsurers. The rules took effect on January 1, 2022.

Section 7.615 (28 Tex. Admin. Code § 7.615) largely mirrors NAIC Model ...

Petitioner Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. moved to confirm a $500 million arbitration award arising from a contract dispute involving hydrocarbon development in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The respondent, Occidental Exploration and Production Co., moved to ...

Plaintiffs Darrell Reeves and James King worked at Enterprise Products Partners through separate third-party staffing companies. Each plaintiff had a separate employment contract with his respective staffing company, which required the employee to ...

Vinod Kumar Dahiya was injured in late 1999 while on a ship en route to Louisiana. At the time, he was employed by Neptune Shipmanagement Services and assigned to a vessel with interests held by the remaining plaintiffs. An arbitration clause in Dahiya’s ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a California district court order granting the plaintiff-union’s motion to confirm an arbitration award against the defendant. On appeal, the defendant claimed the district court erred in determining that the ...

The plaintiff, ITT Engineered Valves LLC, sought to vacate an arbitration award finding it had improperly terminated its employee, Douglas Wood, and ordering that Wood be reinstated. While recognizing the general presumption in favor of enforcing ...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Michigan district court order confirming an arbitration award for Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa. The award ordered Edgar Miller to return the extra payments he received from Farmers Mutual after it ...

Brett-Andrew Nelson filed a petition to confirm an arbitration award issued by the Sitcomm Arbitration Association. The award purported to award Nelson $500,000 from each of the four defendants based on their breach of an unspecified “contractual ...

Third-party defendants AlixPartners LLP and Simon Freakley (collectively, “AlixPartners”) appealed from a July 2020 order of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which granted an application for discovery assistance pursuant ...

Marcia Laude filed suit alleging that her late husband was not adequately cared for while residing in a nursing home operated by the defendants. In 2019, a Wisconsin district court granted the defendants’ motion to compel arbitration and dismissed the case ...

The plaintiff filed suit for alleged civil rights violations arising from his former employment with the defendant. The defendant moved to dismiss and compel arbitration, citing an arbitration clause in the plaintiff’s employment agreement. A provision in ...

Petitioners Credit Suisse AG and Lara Warner sought to permanently stay an arbitration commenced by respondent Colleen Graham, who cross-moved to compel the arbitration. The petitioners claimed the proceeding was an impermissible “collateral attack” ...

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a former employee’s motion to vacate an arbitration award in favor of defendant AT&T Mobility Services LLC. The plaintiff claimed the arbitrator exceeded his powers or imperfectly executed ...

Plaintiff A Better Way Wholesale Autos Inc. filed an application in Connecticut state court seeking to vacate an arbitration award issued in favor of the defendants, James Saint Paul and Julie J. Saint Paul. The defendants filed motions to confirm the award and ...

Two former Aon employees sued Aon, claiming restrictive covenants in agreements they entered into with the company were void, illegal, and unenforceable. Aon moved to compel arbitration per arbitration provisions in the relevant contracts. The plaintiffs ...

The plaintiff filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking to modify an arbitration award to include reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses. The award had been issued to the plaintiff and another similarly ...

Nonparty Lawrence Satz received an arbitral subpoena in a proceeding between International Seaway Trading Corp. and Target Corp. Satz was a former owner of Seaway. The subpoena — the second issued to Satz during the proceeding — sought documents and virtual ...

Petitioner James Wicker appealed an order dismissing his application to confirm a $2 million arbitration award issued in his favor against respondents Bayview Loan Services LLC and U.S. Bank, N.A. Wicker obtained the award after the respondents failed to ...

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. sued OneBeacon Insurance Co. for breach of a facultative reinsurance certificate. Fireman’s Fund settled claims with its insured and allocated a portion of the settlement to a Fireman’s Fund excess policy reinsured by ...

An Ohio district court invoked Rule 45(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in response to a motion to quash by the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI). The subpoena was issued in connection with a reinsurance-related litigation pending in the U.S. District ...

Audra Patterson filed a putative class action against her former employer, American Income Life Insurance Company (AILIC), for alleged wage violations. AILIC moved to compel arbitration of her individual claims pursuant to an arbitration clause in her agency ...

A district court in California granted a motion to compel arbitration pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. A shareholder’s agreement between the parties contained a provision requiring arbitration ...

EB Safe commenced arbitration proceedings against Mark Hurley arising out of a business dispute. The arbitrators ruled in Hurley’s favor and awarded him expenses and attorneys’ fees totaling more than $2 million. A New York district court subsequently ...

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition seeking to vacate an order compelling arbitration of an Uber driver's putative class action. The district court held that rideshare drivers who pick up and drop off passengers at airports did not fall within an exemption in the ...

Evette Burgess and Lithia Motors were arbitrating an employment dispute when, during the proceedings, Burgess filed a motion with the court seeking to terminate the arbitration and to rescind the arbitration agreement. The motion alleged that Lithia breached ...

The plaintiff sued its former lawyer and law firm for legal malpractice. The defendants moved to dismiss and compel arbitration based on a mandatory arbitration clause in the parties' engagement agreement. The trial court denied the motion, finding the ...

Pao Tatneft filed suit in Washington, D.C., district court seeking to enforce a $112 million foreign arbitral award entered in its favor against the nation of Ukraine. Confirmation was sought pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of ...

The Southern District of New York declared that plaintiff Monjasa A/S was not bound by an arbitration agreement to which neither it nor the defendant was a party. The case stems from a fuel delivery contract between two non-parties, Monjasa Lda and Angola de ...

Plaintiffs filed a putative class action against Norwegian Cruise Lines claiming that Norwegian failed to disclose profits it earned when the plaintiffs elected to purchase travel insurance during the cruise booking process. Each plaintiff acknowledged ...

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the denial of a motion to arbitrate where the appellants were not parties to the agreements containing arbitration clauses. The court also concluded that equitable estoppel did not apply to stop the ...

Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York and Madison National Life Insurance Co. entered into an administrative services agreement with FCE Benefit Administrators Inc. under which FCE administered insurance policies underwritten by the ...

The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a combined opinion in two cases arising from arbitration agreements in employment contracts. The plaintiffs in the respective cases claimed they fell within section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), also known as the ...

In February 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied petitioner Hanwei Guo's discovery application after determining that the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) did not qualify as a ...

Section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Arbitration Act allows a court to vacate an arbitration award based on "evident partiality" in the arbitrators. Citing section 10(a)(2), the petitioner moved to vacate a JAMS arbitration award issued in favor of the respondent ...

The Fourth Circuit confirmed a foreign arbitration award issued in favor of third-party defendant Chongqing Rato Power Co. Ltd., a Chinese equipment manufacturer, against defendant Roger Leon. The parties negotiated and executed several contracts in China ...

The plaintiff-appellant filed suit in Oklahoma state court seeking to rescind a contract it entered into with the defendants, claiming the contract was procured by fraud. Citing an arbitration clause in the contract, the defendants moved to dismiss the suit and ...

PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd. sought a judgment that its dispute with Universal Life Insurance Co. was subject to litigation, not arbitration. In response, Universal Life moved to compel arbitration, and PB Life sought a permanent injunction. The motions ...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court order denying the plaintiff's motion to compel arbitration against two non-signatories to the relevant contract. The plaintiff was issued a credit card by defendant Regions Bank. The credit card ...

Middletown Water Joint Venture LLC sought confirmation of an arbitration award finding it had a contractual right to charge the borough of Middletown for certain types of work and enjoining the borough from taking any action to interfere with Middletown Water's ...

The plaintiffs sued Public Storage seeking insurance coverage after Public Storage allegedly disposed of personal belongings the plaintiffs had in a rented storage unit. The belongings were insured under a policy produced by PSCC Inc., an insurance brokerage ...

This case arises from a protracted dispute between Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Co. and Milan Express Co. over amounts Milan allegedly owed Applied Underwriters under a reinsurance participation agreement. The agreement had an arbitration ...

Petitioner, Catalina Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd. was involved in a reinsurance dispute with Legion Indemnity Co., an insolvent insurer, and its liquidator, Robert Muriel, acting director of insurance of the state of Illinois. Following an arbitration hearing ...

The Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court order that the defendant waived its right to arbitrate by withdrawing a venue-based arbitration argument from its motion to dismiss. The arbitration clause in a joint venture agreement between the parties stated ...

Plaintiffs, former shareholders of a holding company for two New Jersey-based insurance companies, sued various affiliates of Aon Risk Services Companies alleging that Aon was negligent in failing to secure insurance coverage after the plaintiffs became ...

Defendants, Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's and its third-party claims administrator, CJW & Associates, sought to enforce a mandatory arbitration clause in a Lloyd's policy issued to the plaintiffs. Enforcement of the provision depended on the interplay ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a California district court order denying the defendant's motion to compel arbitration, agreeing that the defendant waived its right to arbitrate by actively defending the lawsuit for a year and a half ...

A Puerto Rico district court dismissed a third-party action by defendant-policyholder Puma Energy Caribe LLC against the reinsurers of an insurance policy issued by plaintiff Integrand Assurance Co. Puma claimed that the reinsurers breached the reinsurance ...

Everest Reinsurance Co. appealed from two district court orders. It claimed that this dispute with Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. was the same as a prior dispute that Penn National had arbitrated with two other reinsurers. It, therefore ...