Excess Liability News

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a fight between BP, two contractors, and an insurance company over who should pay for thousands of personal injury claims brought by cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed most of a lower court’s rulings for contractors National Response Corp and O’Brien’s Resource Management, and for O’Brien’s excess-liability insurer, Navigators Insurance Co.The decision was not a complete win for BP, however.

From high-traffic ports to bustling boatyards, and busy shipyards to expanding marinas, marine professionals operate in a challenging environment. They work on land, on or around water, and are exposed to all kinds of weather. And the challenges won’t ease up any time soon. Our nation’s ports continue to expand as trade surges. Add in increased commercial vessel traffic and recreational boating, and it’s clear that marine businesses have to be in shipshape condition. It means that the marine insurance industry has to stay on its toes too…

A busy market, fraught with risk, needs specialized protection. The marine construction business is booming in the United States for many reasons. Nationwide, ports are expanding, deepening their channels to accommodate the bigger, so-called post-Panamax vessels. And, that means more than just deepening the channel. Docks, piers, cranes and other shoreside infrastructure need to be bolstered in order to stand up to heavier vessel impacts. Other infrastructure and bridges also need updating to be brought into the 21st century.

2235 N. President & CEO: H. Elder Brown, Jr. Continental Underwriters, Ltd. is a national, multiline firm for all types of marine coverages. The firm offers both admitted and non-admitted products in all 50 states, packaged in flexible, competitively priced insurance options with broad terms and conditions for even the most unusual, complex, and hard-to-place risks. Continental’s 44 years of success ensures that insured’s receive extensive access, tailor-made coverage, and a high level of expertise directly from experienced brokers and underwriters.

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Fidelis Group Holdings LLC and Continental Underwriters, Ltd. For those in the marine insurance and underwriting communities, H. Elder Brown, Jr. needs no introduction. That’s because over the course of the past 27 years, Brown has taken Continental Underwriters Ltd. (CUL) from a small family business to one of the largest brown water marine underwriters in the United States. More recently, Brown returned CUL to private ownership by purchasing CUL back from Houston Casualty Company in 2009.

A typical driveway mechanic can open up the hood, dive into a car’s guts and emerge hours later with an understanding of what is wrong. Even if the mechanic can't get the engine to purr, the situation usually ends up no worse than when he started. A ship repairer has a much trickier challenge. Whether in a huge marine repair facility, sharing his duties with thousands of other employees, or on his own, traveling from marina to marina performing maintenance and repairs, he usually is dealing with a vessel that was not designed for attention on land. In addition, unlike automobiles that roll off an assembly line, each essentially like the others manufactured in that plant, vessels come in all shapes and sizes – each with their own idiosyncrasies.

Construction is a complex business. Equipment can break down; employees can be injured; a project can go awry in unexpected ways. Add a marine element to the work underway, and the pitfalls that a contractor must navigate to manage risk become even more challenging. Marine contractors have long understood that they need specialized coverage and have sought out ocean marine insurance carriers with the expertise to help them. Each project they bid on, however, can come with a variety of special requirements.

Whether building piers and docks, repairing bridges or retrofitting port facilities, construction contractors experienced in working along the waterfront are in demand. To help construction contractors manage both the marine and non-marine exposures that come with working in and around the water, Travelers has developed the Marine Construction program, an insurance package that combines specialized underwriting, risk mitigation solutions and claim services. “Construction contractors who work around the waterfront face a number of complex risks when managing marine, non-marine and contractual liability exposures,” said Virginia Cameron, Chief Underwriting Officer, Travelers Ocean Marine.

The U.S. Coast Guard's 13th District is co- sponsoring the National Maritime Salvage Conference 2002, to be held on January 16 and 17, in Seattle, Washington. Joining the Coast Guard as event co-sponsors are: United States Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, American Salvage Association, Foss Maritime, Foss Environmental, Crowley Marine Services, King County Bar Association, Titan Marine LLC, Water Quality Insurance Syndicate, Global Diving and Salvage, Canflex USA Inc., Marine Response Alliance LLC, the Law Office of Kevin Beauchamp Smith, and American Hull Insurance Syndicate. The national scope of this event will bring together maritime representatives…

The U.S. Coast Guard's 13th District is co-sponsoring the National Maritime Salvage Conference 2002, to be held on Jan. 16 and 17, in Seattle, Wash. Joining the Coast Guard as event co-sponsors are: United States Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, American Salvage Association, Foss Maritime, Foss Environmental, Crowley Marine Services, King County Bar Association, Titan Marine LLC, Water Quality Insurance Syndicate, Global Diving and Salvage, Canflex USA Inc., Marine Response Alliance LLC, the Law Office of Kevin Beauchamp Smith, and American Hull Insurance Syndicate. The national scope of this event will bring together maritime representatives…