Requiring an Insurer to Waive its Right to Subrogation is a Valid & Enforceable Contract Waiver of Subrogation Applies in Marine Insurance Policy Post 4938 Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/requiring-insurer-waive-its-right-subrogation-valid-zalma-esq-cfe-gkn3c/, see the full video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog. Competing motions for summary judgment were presented to the USDC for the Eastern District of Louisiana in a limitation-of-liability action arising from the listing and capsizing of the liftboat RAM XVIII. The motions present the principal question whether Fieldwood (charterer of the liftboat) must defend and indemnify Aries (owner of the liftboat) and U.S. Specialty (Aries’s insurer) under a master time charter agreement from the personal-injury claims brought by employees of Fluid Crane & Construction, Inc. and United Fire and Safety, LLC (Fieldwood’s subcontractors) who were aboard the RAM XVIII when it capsized. Fieldwood moved for partial summary judgment enforcing waivers of subrogation in the master time charter agreement and the relevant U.S. Specialty insurance policy. In The Matter Of Aries Marine Corporation, et al., Civil Action Nos. 19-10850, 19-13138, United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana (November 20, 2024) the USDC resolved the disputes. BACKGROUND The USDC resolved a five-year-old limitation-of-liability action that arose from the listing and capsizing of the liftboat RAM XVIII in the Gulf of Mexico. Aries chartered the RAM XVIII to Fieldwood under a master time charter agreement (the “Time Charter”) in relation to work being performed on one of Fieldwood’s offshore platforms. Under those Master Services Contracts, Fluid Crane and United Fire sent employees to work on Fieldwood’s platform; those employees were aboard the RAM XVIII when it capsized. U.S. Specialty, for its part, underwrote an insurance policy (the “Policy”) that provided Aries with certain coverages in effect when the RAM XVIII capsized. Six employees of Fluid Crane and one employee of United Fire-all of whom were aboard the RAM XVIII when it capsized-brought personal injury claims against Aries. The motions before the Court present the principal question whether Fieldwood must defend and indemnify Aries and U.S. Specialty from those personal-injury claims. THE TIME CHARTER Section 10 features a waiver-of-subrogation provision mandating that “[u]nderwriters of all policies of insurance required [by Section 10] shall waive their rights of subrogation against the Charterer Group,” which includes Fieldwood. THE POLICY The Policy provides coverage to Aries for protection and indemnity, including coverage for personal-injury liability. The Policy includes a waiver-of-subrogation provision that applies to the protection-and-indemnity coverage. A separate section of the Policy-governing hull-insurance coverage contains a waiver-of-subrogation provision and a provision naming Fieldwood as an additional insured. THE MASTER SERVICES CONTRACTS. Fieldwood executed the Master Services Contracts with Fluid Crane and United Fire, respectively. Fluid Crane and United Fire agreed to indemnify the other entities involved from claims asserted by their own employees, as well as to be responsible for defense costs for such claims. ANALYSIS Fieldwood’s Motion Fieldwood moved the Court to grant partial summary judgment enforcing waivers of subrogation in the Time Charter and Policy and dismissing Aries’s crossclaim and U.S. Specialty’s complaint-in-intervention. The Court held that Fieldwood is entitled to partial summary judgment because a review of the Time Charter and the Policy confirms that both Aries and U.S. Specialty have waived their rights of subrogation against Fieldwood. U.S. Specialty Waived Its Rights of Subrogation The Policy unambiguously waives U.S. Specialty’s right of subrogation in favor of Fieldwood. The Policy features a waiver-of-subrogation provision. The Time Charter qualifies as a “written contract” that “require[s]” U.S. Specialty to waive its rights of subrogation against Fieldwood because the Time Charter features a waiver-of-subrogation provision mandating that “[u]nderwriters of all policies of insurance required [by Section 10 of the Time Charter] shall waive their rights of subrogation against the Charterer Group,” which is defined to include Fieldwood. Because a review of the Time Charter and the Policy confirms that U.S. Specialty unambiguously waived its rights of subrogation against Fieldwood, and because the claims asserted in U.S. Specialty’s complaint-in-intervention rest on a subrogation theory, the Court granted Fieldwood’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed with prejudice U.S. Specialty’s complaint-in-intervention. The USDC concluded that the waivers of subrogation in Fieldwood’s favor are enforceable, and Aries and U.S. Specialty have not adequately presented any argument that would allow the Court to hold that their claims for defense and indemnity can survive despite the enforceability of those waivers of subrogation. Fieldwood’s motion for partial summary judgment was GRANTED. ZALMA OPINION Insurance policies like the marine policy interpreted in this case contain standard language authorizing the insured to waive the insurers’ right of subrogation if it does so before there is a loss. Since the litigants sought subrogation recovery which it had waived by the standard language of its policy this five year long litigation was resolved by the acceptance of the waiver. (c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos. Subscribe to my substack at https://barryzalma.substack.com/subscribe Go to X @bzalma; Go to Newsbreak.com https://www.newsbreak.com/@c/1653419?s=01; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk

Trump Team to Reinstate Term 'Illegal Alien' https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/illegal-alien-trump-border/2024/11/20/id/1188877/?ns_mail_uid=6027034f-006f-40ef-b94b-fe4719b97a24&ns_mail_job=DM714298_11212024&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010124lbs3dl President-elect Donald Trump will be doing away with the politically correct term "undocumented noncitizen" and returning to "illegal alien" to describe people who have illegally entered the U.S., the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday. "In this [present] administration, we used 'undocumented immigrants,' right?" a former immigration official who is advising the transition team said to the outlet. "Expect all of that to change." Another official confirmed that discussions of bringing "illegal alien" back into official government lexicon were accurate. President Joe Biden's administration banned the term in 2021 under a directive that hoped to "set the tone and exa

VIDEO - LEGAL MANEUVERS TRUMP CAN USE TO GET THE WAY AROUND THE CONFIRMATION PROCESS TO PLACE HIS NOMINEES IN FUNCTION (CLICK ON THE LINK, NOT ON THE PHOTO)-----> https://wimkin.com/video/play/435194

Biden, Schumer, And Radical Senate Democrats Are Confirming Bottom Of The Barrel Judges Because Senate Republicans Can’t Find The Time To Show Up And Vote

ELECTED OFFICIALS IN NC CONFIRMED HURRICANE HELENE WAS A GENERATED WEATHER BOMB (WMD) BY THE DOD https://old.bitchute.com/video/CMUaRhzjzKq6/

Guess Who Finally Stopped Smoking? IDF confirms killing Hezbollah media chief in Beirut strike: Involved in ‘psychological terror’. After the terror group announced his death, the IDF confirms that it killed Hezbollah’s top spokesman Mohammad Afif in an airstrike in Beirut. Afif was in charge of Hezbollah’s media relations. The IDF calls him Hezbollah’s chief propagandist and spokesperson. https://rumble.com/v5r2s08-guess-who-finally-stopped-smoking.html

Pentagon UFO office testifies to US Senate today. Watch it live here (video) News In a new report released, the office says it has "no indication or confirmation" that UFO reports are "attributable to foreign adversaries." https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRNjGv9DAgA

Trump confirms mass deportation plans with use of military assets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK94PWbCmsk

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/trump-confirms-he-will-declare-national-emergency-immigration/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/confirmed-rino-mitch-mcconnell-delivers-message-president-trump/