No Harm, No Foul: Jury Rejects Reinsurer’s Late-Notice Defense

August 23, 2018

In this bylined article in ARIAS US Quarterly by partner Tancred Schiavoni and counsel Vincent Weisband, the authors discuss a recent case, Utica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., where defendants’ late-notice defense was rejected by a jury. 

“Rarely, if ever, does a reinsurer’s late notice defense reach a jury; when one does, the lessons that flow from trial can be valuable. This is especially so when the jury rejects that defense—leaving the reinsurer on the hook for tens of millions of dollars—and a federal judge then denies the reinsurer’s motion for a new trial. A New York federal court’s recent decision offers an unusual, up-close glimpse of the bar that a late-notice defense may have to clear in a jury trial.”

Click here to read the full article.