Most Reinsurance Policies do not cover Bad Faith of the ceding insurance company or Policyholder. So it is written in the Reinsurance Policy at issue, for example, which is reproduced in pertinent part under the heading of "The Bad Faith Claims" in the case of United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. American Re-Ins. Co., 2013 WL 451666 (N.Y. February 7, 2013)(page numbers not available at the time of publication). The New York Court of Appeals held that questions of fact exist concerning why a ceding insurer paid certain claims particularly whether it did so to pay off Bad Faith Claims against itself, the ceding insurer, rather than simply paying off claims against the cedent's own insured. The Court reversed a Summary Judgment on two issues of Bad Faith, and affirmed the Summary Judgment on the other issues on which the Trial Court entered Summary Judgment in favor of the ceding insurer. United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. American Re-Ins. Co., 2013 WL 451666 (N.Y. February 7, 2013)(page numbers not available at the time of publication).
In an occurrence that so far as I know is totally unrelated, the Blizzard of 2013 struck the Northeastern United States causing great damage to Connecticut and Massachusetts and New England especially, and causing lesser damage to New York but catastrophic damage nonetheless. See, e.g., N.R. Kleinfield and Marc Santora, "Storm Leaves Northeast Reeling and Digging / Snow Tops 3 Feet / Biggest Punch Felt in Connecticut, Boston and Long Island" p. 1, col. 6 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Sunday, February 10, 2013); Nate Schweber and Vivian Yee, "Cold, Hungry and Stuck on a Long Island Road" p. 1, col. 4 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Sunday, February 10, 2013); Katharine Q. Seelye, "Heavy Snow and High Winds Bear Down on Northeast / Emergencies Are Set in 5 States [New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island] as Travel Stalls" p. A1, col. 6 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Saturday, February 9, 2013). Coming on the heels of Sandy, well, not exactly on the heels of Sandy herself but coming on the heels of the House of Representatives' slow awakening from some kind of stupor, i.e., inability to function, the people in the Northeastern United States deserve better.
However, if they have to look to the U.S. House of Representatives for assistance, they will be forced to attract the attention of people in power there who do not come from States that are cold, who do not know the devastation that winter storms can bring let alone when the storms come back-to-back, and who do not feel that they are a part of the same United States that the Blizzard victims live in -- any more than they feel that they are a part of the same United States that Sandy struck. See, e.g., "Refusing to Pay Valid Sandy Claims is Just Bad Faith" posted on Insurance Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog on January 17, 2013; "Bad Faith Votes Against Flood Insurance For Sandy Claims" posted on Insurance Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog on January 13, 2013.
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