A Manhattan appellate court has ruled that New Jersey law should apply instead of New York law in determining the amount of a company’s excess insurance coverage for defending and paying asbestos-related personal injury claims.
As a result, Foster Wheeler Corp., which has faced “hundreds of thousands” of lawsuits for manufacturing asbestos-contaminated boilers, will gain millions of dollars in possible insurance coverage. But roughly 30 insurers who sold Foster Wheeler excess insurance polices from 1970 to 1982 will be saddled with substantially more coverage.
