A Delaware Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that six excess insurers could not escape a dispute with Dole Food Co. Inc. over $222 million in settlements, saying that it was not yet clear whether the insurers could invoke provisions within their policies to deny coverage.

The 27-page opinion represented a mixed result for both Dole and its insurers on competing motions for summary judgment in the nearly three-and-a-half-old case, which stemmed from two settlements resolving shareholder claims that Dole and its president and CEO, David H. Murdock, had manipulated the company’s stock price when Murdock took Dole private in 2013.