WTC Jury Finds Swiss Re Bound By Wilprop

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, May 3, 6 p.m. EDT?The jurors in the federal World Trade Center trial pitting leaseholder Larry Silverstein against 13 of his insurers have finally reached a verdict on Swiss Reinsurance, deciding that the company is bound by a form that defines the 9/11 terrorist attack as one event for insurance purposes.[@@]

The jurors' verdict on Swiss Re--the largest player in the case and the last remaining insurer that was left in deliberations--is a further blow to Mr. Silverstein, who already saw the jury decide in favor of the majority of the insurers in the trial last Thursday.

Swiss Re is now among the companies that the jury found to be bound by the Willis "Wilprop" form. The form's occurrence definition limits the WTC attack to a single insured event, and leaves no possibility for Mr. Silverstein's claim that the 9/11 terrorist attack was two reimbursable events for those carriers.

In all, a majority of the insurers in the case were found to be bound by Wilprop. They are:

? Copenhagen Reinsurance Co. Ltd.

? Employers Insurance of Wausau

? Federal Insurance Company

? Great Lakes Reinsurance

? Houston Casualty Company

? Lexington Insurance

? Lloyd's of London underwriters

? QBE International Insurance Ltd.

? Swiss Reinsurance

? Wurttembergische Versicherung AG

The 10 companies listed above, now found to be bound to Wilprop, have combined gross property coverage of around $1.96 billion.

The jury found that just three companies?Royal Specialty Underwriting, Twin City Fire Insurance and Zurich America Insurance?are not bound by Wilprop, which leaves their maximum exposure still in doubt. The gross WTC property coverage for these three companies adds up to around $227 million on a single-occurrence basis?the exposure would double if under the terms of their policy forms the 9-11 attack is determined to be two separate events with separate limits.

These three insurers would join Allianz, Gulf, IRI, TIG, Tokio Fire and Marine, and Travelers?whose total gross coverage for WTC adds up to about $870 million?to face another trial over whether the terrorist attack was one or two events.

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