Congress’ stated purpose for enacting the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq. (ERISA), was to “protect…participants in employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries…by establishing standards of conduct, responsibility, and obligation for fiduciaries of employee benefit plans, and by providing for appropriate remedies, sanctions, and ready access to the federal courts.” 1 Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pilot Life Insurance Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S. 41 (1987), the […]
THE INSURANCE COMPANY’S OPTIONS WHEN SETTLING AFTER RESERVING ITS RIGHTS Assuming coverage, or at least its ostensible existence, insurance companies are supposed to settle third-party claims against their insureds lest the anodyne of bad faith liability be unleashed. Insurance companies often do not agree wholeheartedly with the policyholder that coverage exists. A potent weapon in the arsenal of rights preserved to insurance companies by their insurance policies and statutory and common law is the reservation […]
