December 11, 2006

Adam Scales of Washington & Lee Law—no reflexive insurance company defender, to be sure—has a piece in Findlaw today finding Judge Duval's opinion (Dec. 1; Nov. 30) "actually succeeds in transforming the caricature of judicial activism into reality. Left to stand, it represents a high-water mark in creative insurance interpretation, which New Orleans residents will be free to ponder as insurers withdraw from a market they are judicially forbidden from defining. Within days of the ruling, St. Paul Travelers announced it was getting out of the commercial insurance business in New Orleans. Travelers has stated this move is unrelated to Judge Duval's opinion, and perhaps this is correct. However, insurers will not fail to see that uninsured natural catastrophes become privately insured judicial catastrophes in New Orleans."