Declarations

Blink blink

“Someone’s going to have to blink soon.”

Ted Kelly, chairman, president, and CEO , Liberty Mutual Group Inc., speaking about the industry’s pricing discipline in the face of diminishing capacity, especially in coastal areas.

Down the road

“Given the legal environment, what we are writing today will be the issue five to seven years down the road.”

Martin Sullivan, president and CEO, American International Group Inc.

Coastal pleading

“We need solutions from regulators, legislators and companies, PLEASE!”

A Suffolk County, N.Y. in a professional Insurance Agents of New York survey on availability of insurance for coastal communities.

Manifest injustice

“To now impose a defense obligation would give a windfall to Silverstein and subject Zurich to a liability that it was unable to calculate or prepare for by an appropriate premium, and thus would work a manifest injustice.”

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in ruling that World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein cannot force insurance companies to pay his legal fees related to litigation stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

Cynical politics

“Tonight’s vote was nothing but a cynical attempt to protect the special interests that have been running Beacon Mutual for years. While cloaked in the mantle of Separation of Powers, this legislation is primarily designed to punish the Governor for exposing the corporate governance scandal at Beacon Mutual, and for blocking the General Assembly’s repeated attempts to privatize the corporation.”

Jeff Neal, spokesman for Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri, after the Senate voted to support making the Governor’s appointments to the Beacon Mutual board subject to Senate approval.

Safety line crossed

“People are crossing over that center line on corners and colliding head-on.”

Peter Thomson, coordinator of the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, after the ninth death attributed to the annual June Bike Week in his state.