US Supreme Court Rules for Insurer in Choice of Law Case

In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court has ruled that a choice-of-law provision in a marine policy is enforceable in a dispute over damages between a global reinsurance company and yacht owner. The decision overturns a federal appeals court ruling in the case, which in turn overturns a trial court ruling for the insurer. Anthony Bartell spoke with Business Insurance about the court’s decision and said that while it is significant that the high court addressed an insurance issue, the justices only looked at boilerplate policy language that was drafted by the industry and not negotiated with the yacht owner. “The Great Lakes opinion deals specifically and only with a tiny subset of marine insurance policies,” Anthony said. “The opinion’s reasoning, therefore, extends only to such policies and impacts no other insurance policies or coverage disputes.”