Summary Judgment Award in Reinsurance Commissions Dispute Not Appealable, 2nd Cir. Rules

NEW YORK — A trial court’s award of summary judgment to a reinsurer in a commissions dispute is not appealable because there was no final judgment on a claim, a federal appeals court has held.

In an Oct. 3 order, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found the trial court’s Rule 54(b) certification was improper because its partial judgment did not address separate “claims for relief.”

In 1994, Acumen Re entered into an underwriting agency agreement with Sorema North American Reinsurance Co. Under the agreement, Acumen Re agreed to act as Sorema’s “exclusive non-employee excess workers' compensation facultative reinsurance …