Tanya Mascarich on Insurance Assignment Rights in Law360

Tanya Mascarich (Associate, Madison Office) was quoted in the Appellate edition of Law360, in an article entitled, "Insurance Assignment Rights Not Valid, NJ Justices Told." Tanya (together with Steve Calogero) is representing Allstate Insurance in a dispute, together with other insurance companies, involving a policy drafted for a corporate predecessor of Givaudan Fragrances. Givaudan was attempting to seek coverage for $500 million to settle environmental claims under policies written in the 1960s and 1980s. The reassignment of policy rights, under New Jersey law, cannot be made without the insurer's consent. Tanya said:

• "...the language of the assignment agreement was too broad... Instead of identifying a loss that's being assigned, the agreement assigns the rights of all policies of all occurrences prior to 1998... There's a fundamental problem with trying to take the language of the assignment on its face and say it's an assignment of a chose in action."

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