Reliance Group Holdings, Inc. v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co

In Reliance Group Holdings, Inc. v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co., 188 AD2d 47, 57, 594 N.Y.S.2d 20 [1st Dept 1993]), the First Department found that for a payment to qualify as "damages, judgments [and] settlements" under the policy, "there must have been an ordered or actual payment of damages by the director or officer, either in satisfaction of a judgment, or by way of settlement of an action" (594 NYS2d at 23). The court declined, however, to find that the settlement at issue fell under this policy definition. The defendants had paid $21.1 million to settle an action against it concerning its actions during a takeover attempt of Walt Disney Productions, Inc., the company had received "greenmail" in exchange for abandoning the takeover and for dismissing a shareholder's derivative suit it had begun against Disney (id. at 22). The greenmail fund eventually totaled $94 million (id. at 23). The court held that the settlement was not a "loss" under the insurance policy because "Reliance sustained no 'loss' as defined in the policy, but rather realized a profit of approximately $74 million in connection with its . . . takeover attempt" (id.).