Hartford-based Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. has filed breach-of-contract claims against three insurance carriers claiming they failed to pay valid claims under a series of reinsurance contracts.
The Travelers subisdiary, formerly known as The Aetna Casualty and Surety Co., claims in its Tuesday lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut that Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., its sister company National Casualty Co. and Lamorak insurance Co. failed to meet obligations totaling more than $900,000. The nearly identical lawsuits were brought by Hartford-based Day Pitney.
Related: Travelers ordered to abide by $500M asbestos pact
|Underlying asbestos claims
The crux of the civil case surrounds Travelers insuring Pittsburgh Corning Corp, (PCC) which sold asbestos-containing products for decades. Over a period of time, the company was sued by individuals alleging they suffered bodily injury from exposure to the products.
As insurance coverage was approaching exhaustion, the lawsuits state, PCC filed for bankruptcy protection in 2000 in the Western District of Pennsylvania. PCC's parent company continued to negotiate with Travelers and other insurers to resolve coverage issues for the asbestos claims. Travelers subsequently satisfied its payment obligations under a trust agreement via payments of about $518 million to an asbestos trust fund.
The defendant companies were among several reinsurers that subscribed to a series of reinsurance contracts comprising what was called Travelers Casualty's Blanket Excess of Loss Program. The reinsurance contracts are commonly referred to as reinsurance treaties.
|Reinsurers promised to provide coverage
As part of the treaties, the lawsuit states the reinsurers promised to provide reinsurance coverage to Travelers in return for its payment of premiums. The lawsuit states the reinsurers agreed to indemnify Travelers for, among other things, “each and every loss from disaster and/or casualty which occurs during the time of this contract.”
Nationwide, the lawsuit states, owes Travelers $422,500, while its sister company owes $404,170, and Lamorak owes $80,000. The treaties, the lawsuit states, were binding.
With regard to Nationwide, the lawsuit states “by improperly failing to make any such payments, Nationwide has breached the contractual obligations it owes to Travelers Casualty under the blanket treaties.”
The lawsuit seeks the monetary damages allegedly owed by the three companies as well as costs associated with the legal action.
Travelers is represented by Daniel FitzMaurice and Joseph Scully, both of Day Pitney. Neither attorney responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
No one from the Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide or National Casualty responded to a request for comment. In addition, no one from Philadelphia-based Lamorak responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
Related: Reinsurance market slows
Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at 203-437-5950.
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Robert Storace
Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at 203-437-5950.
