New Mexico Judge Upholds Lloyd’s Claims Against “Names”

Judge Lorenzo Garcia of the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque New Mexico has upheld the ruling of a U.K. court in favor of Lloyd’s claims for a total of $2.8 million from six American investors, or “Names.”

The case involved the ongoing controversy over whether Lloyd’s, in seeking to expand the number of Names investing in its syndicates in the 1980’s, withheld information on the risks connected with the investments due to potential asbestos and environmental liabilities.

Judge Garcia indicated that he was aware of the potential hardships to the investors, but found no grounds to render the U.K. judgements invalid, and thus ruled that they could be enforced.

The laws governing fraud differ in the U.S. and the U.K. Lloyd’s has been largely successful in having enforcement cases tried before English courts, and has therefore been able to recover judgments against U.S. Names, which might not have been required to pay under U.S. law.