Chubb, Hartford, Agree to $22M Settlement with Reno/Tahoe Int. Airport

Settling a four-year legal battle, The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and The Hartford Insurance Company have agreed to pay Reno/Tahoe International Airport a total of $22 million for a flood insurance claim related to a runway that was damaged in 1997.
The agreement came on the eve of trial, resolving a protracted dispute over whether flood insurance benefits were payable to the Airport as a result of flood damage to Runway 7/25 in Jan. 1997.

The Walnut Creek, Calif.-based law firm of Gumbiner & Eskridge LLP represented the Airport in the suit.

“We’re pleased with this hard-fought victory,” Joel Gumbiner commented. “It’s an important and long-overdue result for the Airport, which was forced to resort to litigation to recover insurance benefits for which it had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums over the years.”

“We’re proud that as a small firm we took on the Goliaths and achieved this outcome,” Jack Eskridge added.

The Truckee River overflowed its banks during winter storms in Jan. 1997 and flooded both downtown Reno and the Airport. After a two-day closure to allow for emergency repairs and for the floodwater to drain, Airport personnel discovered that Runway 7/25 was damaged by the flood. It was immediately closed to jet traffic and over the next three years completely replaced. The two insurers for the Airport reportedly refused to pay any insurance benefits for the damaged runway and the Airport received emergency federal funding to accomplish the complete reconstruction of the 6,000-foot runway.

The Airport brought suit against its insurers, The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and The Hartford Insurance Company, in the District Court for Washoe County, Nevada (Reno).

After nearly four years of litigation, the insurers agreed to pay approximately $22 to settle the remaining policy benefits and extra-contractual damage claims. Another $8 million already had been recovered for the Airport just prior to and during the litigation, bringing the total recovery from the insurers to just over $30 million.

“We are pleased that there is a final resolution to this matter, and that we will receive the insurance benefits which we were entitled to five years ago,” Krys Bart, executive director of the Airport Authority of Washoe County, said. “Our persistence and patience have paid off.”

Topics Carriers Flood Aviation Chubb