Insurance Industry California

Borg-Warner Security Corp. has settled its lawsuits involving failed California insurer Mission Insurance Cos. The security company, which operates under the Burns and Wells Fargo brand names, agreed that its reinsurance subsidiary, Centaur Insurance Co., would approve a $48-million claim filed by Mission. Chicago-based Borg-Warner also agreed to pay Mission $4 million and give it one-third of Borg-Warner's interest in Centaur.

Car insurance companies would find it much easier to cancel or not renew motorists' coverage for what are now considered minor traffic violations under proposed state regulations that received their first public hearing Monday.

Two nonprofit corporations are slugging it out in Sacramento over who should run a health insurance pool for small businesses. Millions of dollars are at stake in the battle over the Health Insurance Plan of California, a 5-year-old, relatively obscure state-run public-private insurance pool of 7,400 small businesses statewide. As required by the state law that created it, HIPC is converting to all-private ownership and operation.

As her son was hospitalized again and again, trapped in the grip of a severe mental illness, Sharon Fountain of Buena Park found herself caught too--with $145,000 in medical bills. Four years ago, Fountain lost her home of 30 years and a rental property to lenders. Then she declared bankruptcy. "I was left homeless and penniless," said Fountain, 58, who blames her insurance company, which would not cover treatment for her son's illness.

A Superior Court judge in Oakland on Wednesday struck down state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush's policy of allowing auto insurance companies to continue to use ZIP Code-based pricing. In a decision that could lead to sharp reductions in car insurance prices in the state's urban centers, Judge Henry E. Needham Jr. ruled that a pricing plan approved last year by Quackenbush violates the terms of Proposition 103, the 1988 insurance reform initiative.

Fearing the coming El Nino storms, more than 70,000 California homeowners purchased federal flood insurance in the last three months of 1997. But some damage from the recent storms may not be covered under the National Flood Insurance Program, industry officials said Wednesday. Basically, the federal flood insurance covers homeowners who suffered damage from mudslides. But policyholders who suffered damage from landslides may be out of luck.

The state's Judicial Council reported Tuesday that judges are not implementing California's mandatory auto insurance law uniformly, and it suggested that the Legislature lower the stiff $1,350 penalty for some first-time violators. The 21-member council headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George said it had surveyed California courts and found that a large majority of judges feel they have discretion to reduce, suspend or do away with the fines altogether in specific cases.

A state Senate committee Tuesday unanimously approved a bill to strengthen the power of California regulators to suspend the licenses of insurance companies that fail to honor valid claims lodged by Holocaust survivors and the heirs of Jews murdered in World War II-era genocide. Even as the committee approved the bill by Sen.

In a potentially significant breakthrough, leaders of major Jewish organizations, four European insurance companies and the California and New York insurance departments agreed Wednesday to establish an international commission to resolve claims lodged by Holocaust survivors and the heirs of people who were among the 6 million murdered in World War II-era genocide.