Declarations

Pioneering

“This new lab is a tangible, dramatic, generous demonstration of the property insurance industry’s deep commitment to reducing and preventing losses that disrupt the lives of millions of home and business owners each year.”

—Julie Rochman, Institute for Building and Home Safety president and CEO, on the opening of its new $40 million facility in South Carolina: a massive test chamber capable of pummeling at least two-full size houses with wind and rain in an effort to find improvements in building techniques and materials. The testing done in South Carolina could help lower natural disaster-related claims, which topped $26 billion in the U.S. last year alone.

Proceeding

“In this order, I have not attempted to determine whether the line between constitutional and extraconstitutional government has been crossed. I am only saying that … the plaintiffs have at least stated a plausible claim that the line has been crossed.”

—U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, ruling that states may proceed with a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform law.

Excluding

“The court concludes as to each plaintiff that the policy’s money laundering exclusion applies to justify underwriters’ denial of insurance coverage at this time.”

—A ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston that accused swindler Allen Stanford may not use $100 million in a Lloyd’s of London directors and officers insurance policy to pay the lawyers defending him on charges of running a $7 billion fraud.

Vindicating

“This decision is a vindication of the actions of the United States in enforcing the law and seeing that justice is done equally and fairly.”

—Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Feaga after a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of former Alabama insurance executive John Goff. Goff was convicted on charges of embezzling], mail fraud and making a false statement to an insurance regulatory agency. Goff headed the now-defunct Goff Group, which supplied workers’ compensation insurance in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. He was convicted in 2009, sentenced to 12 years in prison, and ordered to pay $5 million in restitution.