Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Thu, March 17, 2011 ACE Litigation Watch Highlights Two Failure to Defend Complaints Filed Against ACE Ltd. Subsidiaries
NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--ACE Insurance Litigation Watch, the online repository for lawsuits and complaints against the ACE Group (NYSE: ACE) insurance companies, today highlighted that the ACE companies, Century Indemnity Insurance Company and Illinois Union Insurance Company, are being sued by G-I Holdings Inc. and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG), respectively, for allegedly failing to defend and indemnify the two companies pursuant to insurance policies issued by the ACE Ltd. subsidiaries.
"having paid G-Ia™s defense expenses for many years, Century has now reversed course, and in bad faith, is refusing to pay for G-Ia™s defense."
In its lawsuit against Century Indemnity, G-I Holdings, also known as the GAF Materials Corporation, claims that Century Indemnity has improperly refused to pay for G-Ia™s defense of a $500 million lawsuit brought by the New York City Housing Authority. G-I is successor in interest to the GAF and Ruberoid companies which, during the 1960s and 1970s, manufactured building products containing asbestos. These companies were insured by the Insurance Company of North America (INA), predecessor in interest to Century Indemnity.
Beginning in the mid 1980s, G-I Holdings and its predecessors have defended numerous lawsuits related to asbestos. As G-I describes in its complaint against Century Indemnity, INA issued policies a" in return for $9.5 million in premiums a" between 1953 and 1975 that should provide coverage for G-Ia™s legal defense pursuant to an agreement reached in 1987 between GAF and INA. However, G-I asserts that, ahaving paid G-Ia™s defense expenses for many years, Century has now reversed course, and in bad faith, is refusing to pay for G-Ia™s defense.a G-Ia™s lawsuit against Century Indemnity was filed on January 24, 2011 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
NRG Energy Inc., one of Americaa™s largest power producers, and a subsidiary, Louisiana Generating LLC., filed a lawsuit against Illinois Union Insurance Company on August 9, 2010 in the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. In this litigation, NRG seeks, among other things, a judicial determination that the Illinois Union policies it purchased require Illinois Union to cover certain NRG defense costs stemming from a legal action brought by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA lawsuit relates to NRGa™s ownership of the Big Cajun power plants in New Roads, Louisiana. NRG claims that Illinois Union has improperly determined that the premises pollution liability policies it issued to NRG do not cover the EPA action.
Century Indemnity and Illinois Union are overseen by ACE Group executive Brian E. Dowd. ACE Ltd. (NYSE:ACE), which was recently added to the S&P 500 index, is the parent of companies in the ACE Insurance Group.
ACE Insurance Litigation Watch is currently tracking more than 196 cases in Federal courts alone. The ACE Litigation Index includes recent complaints against the ACE Group by companies such as MI-Swaco, Ticketmaster LLC, the Masco Corporation, and Pepsico that are analogous to the NRG and G-I Holdings lawsuits.
Visit [ www.ACEinsurancewatch.com ] for more information. ACE Insurance Litigation Watch is not affiliated with the ACE Insurance Group in any way.
