Crosby Valve, LLC v. Department of Insurance

131 A.3d 1087, 2016 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 55, 2016 WL 164094
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided January 14, 2016·No. 78 C.D. 2015·Published

Opinions

OPINION BY

Judge BONNIE BRIGANCE LEADBETTER.

Petitioners, Crosby Valve, LLC, ITT Corporation, and The Procter and Gamble Company,1 petition for review of two or[1089] ders of the Insurance Commissioner. The first order denied Petitioners’ petitions to intervene at the agency level. The second order approved the acquisition of OneBea-con Insurance Company, OneBeacon America Insurance Company, Potomac Insurance Company and Employers Fire Insurance Company (Runoff Subsidiaries) by Armour Group Holdings Limited, through its subsidiary Trebuchet U.S. Holdings, Inc. (Armour).2

Petitioners purchased general liability insurance policies from the predecessors of the Runoff Subsidiaries covering claims and liabilities for bodily injury and property damage (the OneBeacon Policies). Petitioners have sought coverage under the OneBeacon Policies for underlying asbestos, environmental and other third-party liability claims, which continue to be asserted against Petitioners.

On February 7, 2013, Armour filed an application to acquire OneBeacon Insurance Company and Potomac Insurance Company with the Department of Insurance under the Insurance Holding Company Act (IHCA), Article XIV of the Insurance Company Law of 1921, Act of May 17, 1921, P.L. 682, as amended, 40 P.S. §§ 991,1401-991.1413, by submitting what is commonly called a “Form A” application. The Department published notice of this proposed transaction in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on February 13, 2013. The Form A application was subsequently amended to include two subsidiaries of OneBeacon Insurance Company, OneBeacon America Insurance Company and Employers Fire Insurance Company, after they were re-domesticated from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Pennsylvania.

On April 23,2013, Petitioners filed applications to intervene in the proceeding before the Department, on the basis that they were policyholders of the Runoff Sub-sidiaries whose rights to access the One-Beacon Policies and to obtain coverage for asbestos and environmental exposures would be impaired if the proposed transaction was approved. Petitioners averred that the purpose and effect of the proposed transaction was to allow the Runoff Subsidiaries’ parent company, OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd. (OneBeacon), to shed asbestos, environmental and other legacy liabilities and that the Runoff Subsidiaries were grossly under-reserved for legacy asbestos and environmental exposures because OneBeacon had stripped capital out of the Runoff Subsidiaries before announcing the proposed transaction. Petitioners further alleged that the proposed transaction would prejudice them and other policyholders by transferring control of the now-depleted Runoff Subsidiaries from OneBeacon, a large, well-capitalized parent company with ongoing, profitable underwriting operations, to Armour, a poorly capitalized arbitrageur of runoff businesses that would be unable to raise any capital in the likely event that the Runoff Subsidiaries’- reserves and reinsurance assets proved insufficient to satisfy their asbestos, environmental and other legacy liabilities under OneBeacon Policies.

Petitioners asserted that they wished to intervene to oppose the proposed transaction and to obtain access to information Armour and OneBeacon had designated as confidential, which the Department had refused to release. Petitioners sought access to analyses of the financial condition of the Runoff Subsidiaries and Armour, modeling performed by actuaries retained by OneBeacon to assess the adequacy of its reserves for asbestos and environme[1090] ntal claims, and projections of whether, under various unexplained assumptions,. the Runoff Subsidiaries would have sufficient assets to pay legacy claims or would require additional capital infusions in the future. The Department provided access to summary versions of these reports to the public.

On July 23, 2014, while the petitions to intervene were still pending, the Department held a public informational hearing,at which Armour and OneBeacon made presentations' and Petitioners and others were permitted to comment. Experts retained by Petitioners and other policyholders seeking'to intervene testified at the hearing that the proposed transaction served no legitimate business purpose, was an improper attempt by OneBeacon to dump legacy liability exposures under hundreds of outstanding policies, and would leave the Runoff Subsidiaries in a weakened financial condition that inevitably would culminate in their- insolvency. In follow-up written submissions to the Department, Petitioners’ experts stated that while the -proposed transaction should not be approved, any approval order should be accompanied by various conditions, including a direct capital infusion of $520 million by OneBeacon or the purchase of $1.6 billion in additional retroactive reinsurance for the Runoff Subsidiaries.

On December 23, 2014, the Insurance Commissioner denied Petitioners’ motion to intervene. In a separate order, the Insurance Commissioner granted the Form A application and approved the proposed transaction. Petitioners filed a petition for review, asserting that the Department’s legal conclusions were-not,in. accordance with law, and its factual findings were not supported by substantial evidence. Additionally,-they assert that the Department’s denial of the motion to intervene was an abuse of discretion and contrary to law because it disregarded Petitioners’ due process rights, the Administrative Agency Law (AAL), 2 Pa.C.S. §§ 101, 501-508, and 701-704, and its own regulations.

Petitioners also challenge the Department’s decision to withhold from them a large volume of financial data and actuarial analyses of the adequacy of the Runoff Subsidiaries’ reserves and surplus. Petitioners assert that by depriving them of a meaningful opportunity to participate in the administrative proceeding and relying on documents and analyses that were not disclosed to Petitioners and never made part of the administrative record, the Department violated their right to due process' in a matter that directly impacted their interests. Petitioners request that this Court yacate the Commissioner’s decisions denying their petitions to intervene and approving the transaction and remand for further proceedings consistent with the requirements of due process and the AAL.

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Crosby Valve, LLC v. Department of Insurance, 131 A.3d 1087, 2016 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 55, 2016 WL 164094 (Pa. Ct. App. 2016).

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