Insurance Law Update

The California Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's ruling that confirmation of Fuller-Austin Insulation Company's bankruptcy plan triggered its excess insurers' indemnity obligations for present and future asbestos-related claims.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the bankruptcy confirmation proceedings were not an actual trial of Fuller-Austin's liability and could not fix Fuller-Austin's liability to asbestos victims for purposes of establishing the existence or amount of an indemnity obligation by insurers. Moreover, the court held that estimations of the individual and aggregate value of present and future asbestos claims served neither to affix nor accelerate insurers' indemnification obligations and did not provide a