An Illinois district court judge has granted a group of reinsurance administrators’ motion to dismiss a complaint filed by Swiss Re. The Complaint alleged that the defendants (“Access Entities”), who managed and administered several reinsurance programs, breached the contracts by mishandling the claims they were responsible for administering, and that Swiss Re’s predecessors suffered losses as a result.
While the Court found meritless defendant’s arguments based on statutes of limitations and failure to join an indispensable party, the Court agreed that plaintiffs improperly “lumped together” three separate entities. Plaintiffs recognized that not all of the defendants were parties to each agreement, however, they argued that because the Access Entites were mere ‘alter egos’ of one another, they could appropriately be held liable for the acts of the others. The court disagreed, concluding that the Complaint did not adequately allege facts to support a finding of contract liability based on corporate veil piercing. As such, the Complaint was dismissed with leave to file an Amended Complaint. Swiss Reinsurance America Corp. v. Access General Agency, Inc., Case No. 07 C 3954 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 1, 2008).
This post written by Lynn Hawkins.