Declarations

Contingent commission ban
“Many industries — not just the insurance industry — rely on performance-based compensation, which is legal, honest and brings many benefits to the insurance marketplace, as it does to our entire American economy. Eliminating all contingent compensation is patently unfair to those who never committed abuses, such as Main Street insurance agents. Main Street agents are not Mega-brokers.”

National Association of Professional Insurance Agents Executive Vice President Len Brevik upon learning that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told ACE, AIG, St. Paul Travelers and Zurich that they may no longer pay contingent commissions to agents and brokers who sell automobile, homeowners and certain other insurance products.

Maryland exclusion upheld
“The exclusion, as it operates for amounts greater than the mandatory minimum coverages for bodily injuries in this case, neither violates the law of contracts nor Maryland’s compulsory automobile insurance law.”

The Maryland Court of Appeals in ruling that a fellow-employee exclusion in a commercial automobile liability policy is valid and enforceable above the minimum statutory liability limits. The court found that the employee exclusion is invalid to the extent that the policy provides less than the minimum statutory liability limits. The case is Wilson v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

More than money
“This lawsuit is more than just about money, although we will be seeking monetary damages. What this case has always been about is the tragic death of Milena Del Valle. That could have been any one of us.”

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly in announcing his intention to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the companies that worked on the Big Dig highway tunnel project, alleging their negligence led to the ceiling collapse that killed Milena Del Valle in July.

New Orleans opportunity
“Right now, we’re on the verge of an opportunity to get a recovery for people who have lost everything and who didn’t have flood insurance or didn’t have enough flood insurance.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Bruno on a ruling that could cost insurers many more billions of dollars than they have already paid out in Hurricane Katrina claims. U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. in New Orleans ruled that ambiguities in certain homeowners policies leave open the possibility that flooding due to “man-made” acts could be covered, despite widespread water damage exclusions contained in most policies.

Topics Agencies Maryland