Quackenbush

This is the second appeal involving Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush’s proposed liquidation plans for Mission Insurance Company, an insolvent insurer whose termination the Commissioner is managing. “Mission both bought and sold reinsurance, in which the reinsured contracted with other insurance companies to exchange some of its policyholders’ premiums for indemnity against covered losses incurred by its insureds. The relevant policies provided property and casualty liability coverage if specified events occurred, as opposed to life or disability coverage. Many of the policies had long tails,’ which meant that a coverage claim from the original policyholder to its insurer, for which the original insurer would seek reimbursement from its reinsurer, such as for environmental pollution, could occur long after the triggering event (the actual dumping of pollutants, for example) and expiration of the policy. These potential, but not yet filed, coverage claims, liability for and the amount of which are unknown, are called incurred but not reported (IBNR) losses.” (Quackenbush v. Mission Ins. Co. (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 458, 460 [ 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 112 ] (hereafter Mission…