[What follows is excerpted from a report published yesterday on the Insurance Business America website:]
A $96 million lawsuit filed against the US government by Lloyd’s, New York Marine and General Insurance Co and Aviation & General Insurance Co went forward this week after the Court of Federal Claims failed to dismiss the suit as the government requested.
The plaintiffs are seeking remuneration from the government after it allegedly blocked certain underwriters from recovering $96 million from Libya for sponsoring two terrorist attacks in the 1980s – the Lockerbie bombings that affected EgyptAir 648 in 1985 and Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. The insurers had filed suits against Libya before US officials stepped in and terminated the proceedings.
In denying the government’s motion to dismiss, the court held that Lloyd’s and the other plaintiffs had a legitimate property interest on which to base their claims. (...)
Lloyd’s originally sued Libya in 1988, looking for reimbursement for their coverage of the attacks, which cost more than $41 million for the EgyptAir flight and $55 million for the Pan Am flight. The other insurers filed a similar suit in 2006.
However, Congress passed the Libyan Claims Resolution Act in 2008, which took the right to oversee suits against Libya away from federal courts’ jurisdiction. Shortly afterward, the government stopped all suits pending against Libya.
After the plaintiffs filed suit against the US government, governmental officials sought a dismissal on the grounds that the insurers do not possess a valid property interest on which they can base their claims.
The court, however, ruled that plaintiffs demonstrated sufficient facts to establish a “property interest in the insurance contracts they sought to protect with a legal claim against Libya, which the United States subsequently extinguished.”
Sufferor wanted to sue Alleged Guilty.
ReplyDeleteGovernor said "I will not allow"
So Sufferor sues Governor.
In the meantime the case against Alleged Guilty is not completed, as it is appealed and stinks.
And Alleged Guilty has died, murdered by Governor. Are the children responsible?
Complicated. Who will win in the end?
Lawyer!
Who has no say, but will still pay, in every way?
Mirrorman!
Lloyd’s originally sued Libya in 1988, looking for reimbursement for their coverage of the attacks, which cost more than $41 million for the EgyptAir flight and $55 million for the Pan Am flight.
ReplyDeleteThis wording implies that the original suit covered both flights, but there was only a week of 1988 left when Pan Am 103 went down. Although Reagan appeared to lay the blame on Libya almost immediately, certainly before the year was out, that could scarcely have sparked an almost instantaneous lawsuit.
In fact the Lockerbie investigators were working on the assumption that Iran was responsible for Pan Am 103 from at least 30th December 1988, and the idea that Libya might have been behind it didn't surface until late 1990. The indictments against the Libyan accused weren't issued until November 1991. So it seems impossible that the Pan Am plane could have been part of a 1988 lawsuit against Libya (or indeed anyone).
Journalistic sloppiness I assume.