Bennett v. Liberty National Fire Insurance Company

968 F.2d 969 61 USLW 2063 Andrea BENNETT, State Auditor and Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Montana and Liquidator of Glacier General Assurance Company in Liquidation, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LIBERTY NATIONAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY; J. Gordon Gaines, Inc., Defendants-Appellants. No. 91-35292. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted June 1, 1992. Decided July 6, 1992. Lawrence S. Greengrass, Michael H. Goldstein, Jeffrey B. Gold, Mound, Cotton & Wollan, New York City, Stanley Kaleczyc, Browning Kaleczyc Berry & Hoven, Helena, Mont., for defendants-appellants. Robert R. Throssell, Keller, Reynolds, Drake, Sternhagen & Johnson, Helena, Mont., James C. Underhill, Jr., Hugh Alexander & Associates, Denver, Colo., for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana. Before: WRIGHT, CANBY, and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges. EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge. 1 The Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to compel arbitration in actions where the parties have previously agreed to arbitrate their contractual disputes. We consider here whether an insolvent insurer's pre-insolvency agreement to…