Insurers contribute equally to $20 million Goldman HQ event

A New York judge ordered insurers to contribute equally to damages claims by two parties who were injured at the construction site of the new Goldman Sachs’s headquarters.

Settlement was $20 million of which the primary insurer paid $1 million. The remaining insurers had policies that provided essentially the same level of cover. They were therefore ordered to divide the balance of the loss equally between them.

As would be the case in South Africa, the court ignored the exception in some of the polices providing for no cover if there was other insurance. Mutually repugnant clauses lead to contribution.

(Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London v Illinois National Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania et al.)

First published by : Financial Institutions Legal Snapshot