It's pretty clear in most jurisdictions that the question of
whether disputes under multiple reinsurance contracts should be
consolidated is a question for the arbitrators and not the court.
What's less clear is how the parties get an arbitration panel
in place to address the consolidation issue. A California federal
court recently addressed this issue.
In Employers Ins. Co. of Wausau v. The Hartford, No.
2:18-cv-07240-CAS-AGR, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205345 (C.D. Calif.
Dec. 3, 2018), the court was faced with a barrage of procedural
maneuvers seeking to resolve an impasse between the parties on
deciding whether a dispute under various reinsurance contracts
should be consolidated. The underlying loss arose out of settlement
payments made by the affiliated cedents for the same underlying
insured's claim. The problem is that the settlement was ceded
by three different cedent affiliates to 19 reinsurance contracts
covering eight reinsurance programs. The arbitration
