Related Wrongful Acts Preclude Reinsurer's Duty To Reimburse

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, applying Florida law, has held that a reinsurer does not need to reimburse its insured for defense and settlement costs paid in connection with an underlying lawsuit, finding that the earliest of a related series of wrongful acts predated the relevant coverage period such that the underlying policy did not afford coverage for the suit. Public Risk Mgmt. of Fla. v. Munich Reinsurance Am., Inc., 2022 WL 2338572 (11th Cir. June 29, 2022). The court also refused to apply a "follow-the-fortunes" doctrine that did not appear in the parties' reinsurance agreement.

A self-insured risk management company that insures governmental entities in Florida (the Risk Pool) entered into a reinsurance agreement (the Agreement) with a reinsurer, which reinsured an occurrence-based E&O policy that ran from 2008 to 2009. Pursuant to the Agreement, the reinsurer agreed to reimburse the Risk Pool for covered amounts paid out