N.Y. Judge Sends Retention, Allocation Issues to Trial In Reinsurance Dispute Involving Kaiser Asbestos Losses

NEW YORK — A jury should decide whether a cedent breached a reinsurance certificate by failing to retain a percentage of its risk by entering into an inter-pooling agreement, a New York judge has ruled, noting that evidence of custom and usage indicates a latent ambiguity of what the parties intended the certificate’s warranty of retention to entail.

On June 17, Judge Ellen M. Coin of the New York County Superior Court also found a question of fact as to whether the cedent, Granite State Insurance Co., properly allocated the underlying asbestos losses to the reinsured policy.

Granite State is …