Jury Renders Partial Verdict in WTC Recovery Case
National News • April 30, 2004
The federal jury that has been deliberating the complex issue of how much Silverstein Properties, the master leaseholder of the World Trade Center, should recover from its insurers has reached a ...
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Subject: WTC ... Carrier Senior Management
Posted On: May 3, 2004, 7:19 am CDT
Posted By: RAC
Comment:
- The simple question I have yet to see asked is: whether the first event and the results from it constituted a total loss?
- If the experts opine that the campus complex would have been rendered a constructive total loss, which is likley ... then the second occurrence would be rendered moot, as no more damage was incurred.
- As an aside, for those with a deep history in coinsuraance know, that very provision was created many decades ago due to the continued mentality of commercial businesses in the Northeast to underinsure risk, such as in the instant case. Since this issue has not been raised, it maybe that the carriers set this valuable provison aside, allowing "the perfume of the premium to cloud the stench of the risk."
- In closing, this is a senior management failure for years downsizing and refusing to recognize the value of real world experience left (if any)within their organization, as a consequence of decades of purging of experienced underwriting and claims staff. The placement of this business was not rocket science and a rudimentary understanding of the risk and what was bargained for by a lead carrier underwriter with real experience in the Northeast mentality would have produced one following form policy, which had been case law tested with real 100% coinsurance penalites for the underinsuring owner.
- Unfortunately, much of this will be swept away by senior management and blamed on credentialed but ill trained and experienced underwritering staff, that will be discharged and it will be business as usual again, the lawyers will all be paid and the board of directors for these carriers will not act independently against the hand that feeds them (senior management) and ultimately the insurance buying public continues to be punished with unnecssarily higher premiums, passed along as a consequence of the same. This pattern is all too familiar for those on wall street, where greater infidelity with the public trust by senior management has occurred.
End...
Subject: WTC ... Carrier Senior Management
- If the experts opine that the campus complex would have been rendered a constructive total loss, which is likley ... then the second occurrence would be rendered moot, as no more damage was incurred.
- As an aside, for those with a deep history in coinsuraance know, that very provision was created many decades ago due to the continued mentality of commercial businesses in the Northeast to underinsure risk, such as in the instant case. Since this issue has not been raised, it maybe that the carriers set this valuable provison aside, allowing "the perfume of the premium to cloud the stench of the risk."
- In closing, this is a senior management failure for years downsizing and refusing to recognize the value of real world experience left (if any)within their organization, as a consequence of decades of purging of experienced underwriting and claims staff. The placement of this business was not rocket science and a rudimentary understanding of the risk and what was bargained for by a lead carrier underwriter with real experience in the Northeast mentality would have produced one following form policy, which had been case law tested with real 100% coinsurance penalites for the underinsuring owner.
- Unfortunately, much of this will be swept away by senior management and blamed on credentialed but ill trained and experienced underwritering staff, that will be discharged and it will be business as usual again, the lawyers will all be paid and the board of directors for these carriers will not act independently against the hand that feeds them (senior management) and ultimately the insurance buying public continues to be punished with unnecssarily higher premiums, passed along as a consequence of the same. This pattern is all too familiar for those on wall street, where greater infidelity with the public trust by senior management has occurred.
End...