Lawyers yesterday filed final briefs with a trial court judge in Superior Court in Massachusetts, who will decide if reinsurers can proceed with an application for judicial review of the state insurance regulator's decision to allow the redomestication of Electric Mutual Liability Insurance Co. (EMLICO) to Bermuda 20 months ago.

This week, the regulator, EMLICO and related company, Electric Insurance Co.

(EIC) had asked the trial court to defer the filings of summary briefs Lloyd's underwriters, Kemper Re and General Re had pending, while the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) for Suffolk County considered the petition of the Commissioner of Insurance.

The regulator, Commissioner, Linda L. Ruthardt of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance (DOI), asked the Superior Court to defer the filings until one week after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled. But on Wednesday, the court denied the emergency motion, clearing the way for the final filing of briefs yesterday.

The Commissioner's petition before the SJC seeks her appointment as a US receiver for EMLICO and the endorsement of a settlement agreement involving her office, EMLICO, related company, Electric Insurance Co. (EIC) and EMLICO's principal policyholder and creditor, General Electric Co. (GE).

Meanwhile, filings continue for this matter with the SJC for a hearing currently scheduled for April 8. The Commissioner had argued before the Superior Court that if the SJC approved her appointment as receiver to EMLICO and the proposed settlement agreement, the claims of harm alleged by reinsurers and the judicial review proceedings would be rendered moot.

In vigorously opposing the emergency motion, Kemper Re successfully argued before the Superior Court that reinsurers were not participants in the "secret negotiations'' among the defendants that led to their agreement, and are not a party to, nor are bound by the proposed settlement.

Attorney Scott P. Lewis, of law firm, Palmer & Dodge, said, "The purported settlement of claims among the defendants has not, and could not, preclude the plaintiffs, including Kemper Re, from pursuing their actions against the Commissioner, EMLICO and EIC.'' He further argued that although the defendants insist they reached agreement March 13, (the same day the Superior Court was hearing oral arguments on the motion to dismiss) their own court papers show that the settlement had already been submitted to the Bermuda Supreme Court March 11 and had been approved the following day.

COURT CTS