Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd.

Bermuda-based Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd., which went into liquidation in 1991/92, has won a House of Lords ruling that might render it solvent.In a decision dated October 18, 2001, the House of Lords dismissed by four to one an appeal by broker Johnson and Higgins against a lower court's decision to award $35 million to Aneco Re.

London Market brokers have collected more than $5 million for the account of the insolvent Bermuda-based Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd, the first meeting of Aneco creditors was told in Bermuda March 26.However the funds are subject to a "mareva injunction" freezing all Aneco's assets in the United Kingdom, according to provisional liquidator Malcolm Butterfield.

Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd chairman Mark Hardy has instructed his lawyers to commence legal proceedings against the underwriters, cedants and brokers responsible for handling Aneco's property catastrophe book of business. The action, to be brought either in Bermuda or in London, will seek damages in connection with the underwriting and placement of this business with Aneco.

Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd, the beleaguered Bermuda-based reinsurer which is fighting three separate applications to have it placed in liquidation, has won an appeal, on technical grounds, against a winding-up petition started six months ago by Mutual Indemnity Ltd.But the Bermuda Appeal Court's decision, handed down November 28, is already the subject of intense legal scrutiny which may yet produce an appeal to Britain's Privy Council - the highest court of appeal for litigants in the UK's dependent territories.