When a reinsurer refused to reimburse two AIG insurance companies for the insurers’ losses arising out of asbestos litigation, the AIG companies made a demand for a single arbitration under three reinsurance agreements between the parties. The reinsurer delayed the process of appointing an arbitration panel by asserting that differences between the contracts warranted three separate arbitrations. The insurers petitioned the court to appoint an umpire – two other arbitrators having already been appointed by the parties – under Section 5 of the Federal Arbitration and the reinsurer petitioned the court to order separate arbitrations under Section 4 of the Act. The court refused both parties’ demands, concluding that both issues would require the court to decide the core dispute: whether the insurers’ demand for a single arbitration was improper. The court ordered the parties to proceed with the agreed upon arbitrator selection process, so that the single arbitration panel could address the issue of whether the demand for a single arbitration was improper. Granite State Insurance Co. v. Clearwater Insurance Co., Case No. C 13-2924 (USDC N.D. Cal. Aug. 19, 2013).
This post written by Abigail Kortz.
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