Arbitrators Must Determine Arbitrability of Reinsurance Contract Dispute Between CX Re, Trenwick, Judge Rules

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An arbitration panel must decide the arbitrability of a dispute over whether commutation of a reinsurance agreement between Trenwick America Reinsurance Corp. and an insolvent insurer extinguished any obligations Trenwick may have had to CX Reinsurance Company Ltd. under the agreement’s cut-through clause, a federal judge has ruled.

On May 23, Judge Janet Bond Arterton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut found the question of arbitrability falls within the reinsurance agreement’s broad arbitration clause.

Trenwick entered into a reinsurance agreement with Commercial Casualty Insurance Company of Georgia, effective April 1, 1997, to …