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Contentious Insurance

Cadwalader lawyers have significant experience in resolving insurance and reinsurance disputes. This includes representing insurers in disputes involving malpractice or unlawful termination of managing general agents or pool managers and representing insurers and financial institutions on significant claims, coverage, and policy interpretation issues, and issues relating to property and casualty, life, accident and health, D&O, E&O, fidelity, financial guaranty, and mortgage guaranty and other forms of special financial risk insurance.

We handle internal investigations and internal compliance practices and procedures for all areas of insurance underwriting, licensing, marketing, advertising, claims, and federal and state law compliance. Our attorneys also counsel insurers on antitrust issues, including the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Our litigation experience on behalf of insurers encompasses all aspects of non-insurance-related litigation that frequently affect insurers, including securities fraud actions and real estate foreclosure.

Cadwalader attorneys also have established a global reputation for their expertise in some of the largest insurance insolvencies on record, assisting clients in the restructuring of loan obligations and pursuing coverage under state guaranty funds. In recent years, the Firm has successfully handled numerous significant and complex insurance insolvencies, including cross-border insurance litigation and proceedings handled by our U.K. solicitors in London, section 304 work, and run-off work in the U.S. and the U.K. In addition, we represent clients whose interests have been affected by insurer insolvency proceedings, assisting them in the restructuring of loan obligations, and pursuing coverage under state guaranty funds. Our insolvency litigators also work closely with clients in structuring sophisticated corporate, commercial, derivative, and securitization transactions to identify and minimize the adverse effects of an insolvency on the parties to the transaction.

  • Allstate in a suit against numerous physicians and related practice groups alleging the defendants engaged in schemes to fraudulently obtain insurance proceeds that were supposed to pay for medical services for people injured in auto accidents
  • Allstate in a suit against providers of durable medical equipment alleging that these providers entered into arrangements with medical clinics and wholesalers to perpetrate a fraudulent scheme in which the providers submitted hundreds of fraudulent invoices to Allstate for reimbursement under New York’s no-fault law that grossly inflated the amounts the providers actually paid for the equipment
  • Mead Johnson & Co. LLC in a suit against Lexington Insurance Co. seeking defense of and indemnification for consumer class actions over its marketing of infant formula
  • MBIA in connection with a number of its insured credits including credits in mortgage origination, health care and other industries
  • MBIA as the guarantor of Eurotunnel debt held by FLF securitization structures, one of the most complex debt restructurings ever undertaken in Europe
  • CIFG Holding Ltd, and its affiliates, a monoline insurer, as lead workout counsel in connection with matters related to the subprime crisis
  • CIFG Holding, Ltd., the holding company for CIFG’s financial guaranty subsidiaries and its principal shareholders, Banque Populaire Group and Caisse d’Epargne Group, in its settlement with credit default swap counterparties and insured bondholders commuting approximately $12 billion in notional ABS CDO and CRE CDO exposures in exchange for cash and equity, substantially reducing CIFG’s exposure to problematic derivatives and resulting in a significantly improved capital position and claims paying resources sufficient to satisfy rating agency investment grade capital requirements
  • XL Capital, Ltd., a Bermuda-based insurance company, in connection with the restructuring of monoline insurance company Security Capital Assurance Ltd (now known as Syncora)
  • MBIA in respect of exposure to Lehman Brothers and to General Growth Properties
  • MBIA in the restructuring of Stuyvesant Town in New York
  • A major property and casualty insurer in the restructuring of its affiliated monoline financial guaranty insurer
  • An ad hoc committee of Equitable Life bondholders
  • Aon Corporation in connection with its participation in a pre-packaged plan of reorganization for Reliance Holdings Inc. and its insurance company subsidiaries
  • The estate or the creditors in highly visible London market insurance insolvencies, including KWELM, English & American, Sovereign Marine, Orion, Anglo, and North- Atlantic
  • The New Jersey Insurance Commissioner as rehabilitator of Mutual Benefit Life, the largest insurance company rehabilitation proceeding in U.S. history
  • The company and the noteholders in the U.K.’s largest company run-off, Odyssey Re London Limited (formerly Sphere Drake)
  • The lead creditor and standby purchaser of Westbridge Capital, an insurance holding company
  • One of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. in the Olympia & York bankruptcy restructuring
  • The Michigan Insurance Commissioner as rehabilitator in the rehabilitation of the $8 billion U.S. operation of Confederation Life Insurance Company, the largest insurance failure in North American history
  • The lead creditor and standby purchaser of Westbridge Capital, an insurance holding company
  • A major insurance company in civil litigation and related criminal proceedings arising from the New York federal task force criminal investigations into insurance fraud in commercial and personal lines insurance claims
  • CIFG in several actions brought by various California municipalities in California state courts against CIFG and other monoline insurers alleging state antitrust and common law claims against CIFG and other monolines arising out of monoline insurance of bond offerings by California municipalities in the Superior Courts for the County of Los Angeles and the City and County of San Francisco
  • MBIA Insurance Corporation in claims against Residential Funding Company, LLP (RFC) for fraud and breach of contract arising out of MBIA’s insurance for five residential mortgage securitizations sponsored by RFC
  • MBIA in connection with claims brought by MBIA in a claims proceeding established by the FDIC, as receiver/conservator for IndyMac Bank based on, among other things, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and fraud arising out of MBIA’s insurance of distributions to investors in various RMBS securitizations sponsored by IndyMac Bank consisting of pools of, in aggregate, approximately 50,000 sub-prime residential mortgages
  • MBIA in an action brought by Radian Insurance Company against IndyMac Bank, MBIA and two other monoline insurers for a declaratory judgment that Radian is not required to honor its obligations under pool insurance policies issued by Radian in connection with various IndyMac-sponsored RMBS securitizations in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • Ambac Assurance Corporation and affiliated entities in an action brought by Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative against John Hancock Life Insurance Company and Ambac arising out of a complex leveraged lease transaction, consisting of various contracts, including credit default swap agreements, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb in prosecuting a claim against a Swiss Re affiliate in federal court under the New York Convention seeking declaration and damages relating to the allegedly improper attempt through arbitration to rescind insurance policies and related proceedings in U.K.
  • A major pharmaceutical policyholder in multiple arbitrations in the U.S. and U.K. seeking recovery of loss arising from thousands of underlying products liability suits
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb as policyholder and indemnitee in $50 million in claims arising from Kemper Ins. Cos. alleged breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and related wrongs presenting novel claims arising from Kemper’s conduct of its run-off
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb as policyholder in a successful arbitration seeking coverage for false advertising
  • Wickes Companies in a successful claim against AIG regarding coverage under fiduciary liability policies arising from significant ERISA claims
  • Wickes Companies and affiliates in a variety of coverage matters, including a large CERCLA liability claim litigated in California and Rhode Island, and property litigation in Michigan and California
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb in the prosecution of claims against primary and excess comprehensive general liability carriers for coverage of liabilities arising out of the sale of DES, including four successful trials in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and a successful appeal before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as related proceedings in the U.K.
  • Lloyd’s of London in an arbitration relating to claims for reimbursement related to an auto liability program.
  • PepsiCo in the prosecution of claims against CNA for coverage under D&O liability policies of amounts incurred to defend and settle securities litigation and related SEC and grand jury investigations.
  • A restaurant franchisor in defending claims by an insurance company seeking rescission and coverage defenses under a business loss policy because of alleged fraud in the procurement of the policy.
  • A medical center in defending claims by a carrier seeking rescission of D&O policies because of alleged fraud in financials and in the insurance application underlying the related policies
  • Sompo Japan in a reinsurance arbitration against Fortress Re, a reinsurance pool manager, obtaining a $1.119 billion award, including $100 million in punitive damages – one of the largest arbitration awards ever rendered, and one of the largest damage awards in reinsurance arbitration history
  • CIGNA and GenRe in a partial summary judgment in a $400 million dispute in New York state court declaring that a workers’ compensation carve-out reinsurance contract never came into existence and litigated complex issues of full faith and credit, implied contract, and ratification on parallel tracks in New York and Washington
  • International Financial Group in a claim of rescission by a reinsurer based on alleged fraud and misrepresentations in the procurement of the policies
  • U.S. Capital Holding Co. in arbitration and litigation in state and federal court against Republic Insurance Co.

1 Attorneys

Natbony, William J. Counsel New York
T. +1 212 504 6351
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