Latest New York Headlines

All the headlines from our New York Topic Page, ordered by recency.

N.Y. Court Rules on Asbestos Defense Costs for Primary Insurer

Nov 23 2011 // A New York State court ruled last Friday that an asbestos defendant is entitled to full defense from its primary insurer for certain asbestos liabilities, with the primary insurer paying all defense costs for covered...

Officials Say Western New York Tornadoes Cost $760K

Nov 22 2011 // The Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Services says tornadoes that touched down in three western New York communities a week ago caused $760,300 in property damage. The tornadoes touched down in the village of Fredonia...

Claimed Auto Injury Losses in N.Y. Metro Area Rose 70% in 10 Years

Nov 22 2011 // Personal injury protection (PIP) claims closed in 2010 show that claimed losses for medical expenses, lost wages, and other expenses from auto accident injuries in the New York City area rose 70 percent over the past...

New York Court Allows Lawsuit Over Bogus Home Appraisals

Nov 22 2011 // New York’s highest court allowed the state Tuesday to proceed with a lawsuit that had accused First American Corp. and its eAppraiseIt unit of colluding with the former Washington Mutual Inc. to fraudulently inflate...

New York Loosens Commercial Insurance Regulations for Large Insureds

Nov 21 2011 // New York State Department of Financial Services announced on Monday that it issued new regulations to implement a recently adopted state law that deregulates most insurance business for large, sophisticated companies. The...

New York Insurance Association Elects Rice as New Chairman

Nov 21 2011 // Jeffrey Rice, president and CEO of Wayne Cooperative Insurance Company in Clyde, N.Y., was elected chair of the New York Insurance Association (NYIA) at the group’s annual meeting last week. Rice will serve a...

Starr International Files $25B Suit Against U.S. Over AIG Takeover

Nov 21 2011 // A company run by former American International Group Inc Chief Executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg sued the U.S. government for $25 billion, calling the 2008 federal takeover of the insurer unconstitutional. The...

People

Nov 21 2011 // Holborn Corp., an independent reinsurance brokerage firm in New York, appointed two executives: Wesley Zeliff as vice president and Shinji Ueda as assistant vice president. Zeliff comes from U.S. RE Corporation, where he...

Inconsistency Is the Norm in Construction Liability Coverage

Nov 21 2011 // In construction liability insurance, there is a great deal of inconsistency in determining whether faulty workmanship is an occurrence. The answer is all over the map, according to Finley Harckham, a veteran insurance...

New York Students to See Danger of Texting While Driving

Nov 16 2011 // Students in suburban New York are getting a chance to learn the perils of distracted driving without having to worry about an accident or a traffic ticket. A texting-while-driving simulator that resembles an old-fashioned...

Merck Settles Vioxx Suits from New York, Florida, South Carolina

Nov 15 2011 // Merck & Co. has reached settlements to resolve lawsuits from the states of New York, Florida and South Carolina alleging the company misled state regulators about the dangers of the painkiller Vioxx, according to court...

Lawyers, Firms Line Up as MF Global Crumbles

Nov 14 2011 // Just days after the collapse of MF Global, a healthcare plaintiffs’ lawyer registered the domain mfglobal-lawsuit.com — a sign of the legal business the brokerage’s failure is expected to...

WRM America Completes Acquisition of Fidelity National Indemnity

Nov 14 2011 // WRM America Holding Company, a specialty lines P/C insurance and risk management holding company, completed the acquisition of Fidelity National Indemnity Insurance Company (FNIIC), the flood insurance business of Fidelity...

More New York Courts to Focus on Medical Malpractice

Nov 14 2011 // New York courts specializing in the state’s 4,000 medical malpractice cases filed each year have begun expanding following the success of a Bronx judge in settling cases early. The approach, shown to cut court...

Life Insurer Sues Bank of America Over Mortgages

Nov 10 2011 // Bank of America Corp. and its Countrywide Financial unit were on Wednesday hit with a new lawsuit alleging fraud in the sale of residential mortgage debt to a New York mutual life insurance company. National Integrity Life...

XL Appoints Seib as Excess Casualty Team President in New York

Nov 7 2011 // XL Group’s North America property/casualty insurance group appointed Lorraine Seib as president of its excess casualty team. Based in New York, Seib will manage XL’s global excess casualty business with...

Investors Want ‘Secrecy’ Lifted in BofA Mortgage Securities Deal

Nov 7 2011 // Investors want to lift the “shroud of secrecy” over the proposed $8.5 billion settlement of Bank of America Corp.’s mortgage-backed securities liability in the coming weeks, a lawyer said last week. Dan...

Workers’ Comp Results Deteriorated for Northeastern States

Nov 7 2011 // Most states in the northeastern region reported deteriorating workers’ compensation underwriting results last year, according to A.M. Best. Pennsylvania’s direct premiums written fell 8.6 percent last year. New...

People

Nov 7 2011 // Aspen Insurance Holdings appointed Mario Vitale as New York-based co-CEO of Aspen Insurance, effective beginning of 2012. He will work jointly with Rupert Villers, co-CEO of Aspen Insurance, in developing the...

People

Nov 7 2011 // Florida insurance broker Kuykendall Gardner has tapped Nicholas Carbone to serve as a vice president of transactional risk. In this role, he will assess, mitigate and transfer risk through insurance and other business...