Van Winkle • Baten Dispute Resolution

An insolvent casualty company had provided three years of occurrence coverage to a fortune 500 company. The court supervising the liquidation issued an administrative order that required policyholder to value all pending, future and incurred but not reported claims. The insured reported multiple mass tort cases alleging injury or damage from its product. The insurer denied payments on the basis that the company did not provide actuarial evidence or another accepted method of valuing its claims with reasonable certainty. One key issue was whether the focus should be on the information available on the date the court set as the deadline for submitting claims or whether subsequent events should be considered. After the deadline, one of the pending cases resulted in a billion dollar verdict but that verdict was subsequently reversed on appeal.