Iowa Judge Orders Carrier to Produce Reinsurance Communications in D&O Coverage Dispute

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa magistrate judge has ordered Everest Reinsurance Co. and Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. to produce reinsurance communications in a coverage dispute, finding the information is not protected by either the work product doctrine or the attorney-client privilege.

On Aug. 22, Magistrate Judge Leonard T. Strand of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa further found that the common interest doctrine does not preserve attorney-client privilege because the relationship between Progressive and its reinsurers is not legal, but rather commercial and financial in nature.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. sought a declaratory judgment that …