Insurer Ordered to Arbitrate Asbestos Injury Claims Dispute with Reinsurers

LOS ANGELES – A California federal judge has compelled an insurer to arbitrate its contribution claims against a group of London reinsurers relating to asbestos bodily injury claims against Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, ruling that the reinsurance treaty’s arbitration provision applies to the entire dispute.

In a Nov. 15 order, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California explained that “where two contracts are merely interrelated contracts in an ongoing series of transactions, an arbitration provision in one contract could apply to subsequent contracts.”

Truck issued a series of general liability insurance …