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When Is Credit Due? Reallocation for Settlements under 'All Sums'

By Seth A. Tucker

In a multi-insurer coverage case, it is common for the insured to settle with one or more insurers before trial. When that happens in a case in which the court employs the “all sums” scope-of-coverage approach, can the non-settling insurers bring claims of their own against the settled carriers in an effort to reallocate some of their liability to their former co-defendants? If not, is there another mechanism to account for those settlements? This article addresses these issues.

As explained below, courts have generally refused to allow non-settling insurers to maintain claims against settled carriers. Instead, courts typically hold that, at most, the non-settling insurers may obtain a set-off or credit based on the prior settlements. When courts have allowed the non-settling insurers to seek a credit for the insured's prior settlements, they have usually employed the “pro tanto” approach, which caps any credit at the amount actually received by the insured in the prior settlements. The leading decisions further refine the analysis so that any credit is limited solely to the amount that the insured received for the specific claim that forms the basis of the judgment against the non-settling insurers.

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