National Union Insurance Co

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the main insurance carrier that covered Charles H. Keating Jr. and other directors and officers of his financial empire did not have to defend them against the maelstrom of civil lawsuits stemming from the 1989 collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan. But the decision comes too late for National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh.

An international restaurant company filed claims for more than $2 million against the City of Redondo Beach this week, saying that the city failed to protect the firm's three restaurants from ocean storms that battered the harbor in January.

Financially troubled Teachers Management & Investment Corp. and its two managers agreed Wednesday to pay investors $4 million in cash to settle accusations that they misappropriated real estate partnership funds and caused more than $200 million in losses. The settlement, which is subject to court approval, is the first in a case stemming from an operation designed originally to help teachers throughout the state save money for retirement.

A new contractor will be named by Monday to complete the Los Angeles Police Department training center in Granada Hills, an official from the city's Department of Public Works said Tuesday. A consortium of surety companies is seeking new bids after the original contractor, American Kuk Dong Inc., a subsidiary of a Korean company, defaulted in February due to financial problems resulting from the downturn in the Asian economy, said Brad Smith, chief deputy city engineer.

Beleaguered businessman Charles H. Keating Jr. and executives in his Phoenix company will probably exhaust their $5-million defense fund by the end of July and risk losing legal representation in a slew of court cases stemming from the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal, one of his lawyers said Thursday. Reliance Insurance Co., which has been paying the legal fees of 10 law firms, has notified directors and officers of Lincoln's former parent, American Continental Corp.

An insurer that provided professional liability coverage to American Continental Corp. must pay to defend financier Charles H. Keating Jr. in civil suits brought by investors who bought the company's now worthless bonds, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh would have to pay the court costs for Keating, former chairman of American Continental, and other company officers.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal on Tuesday reversed as "excessive" a $13.7-million jury verdict for a Calabasas couple whose insurance company failed to help when an injured customer sued them. When the verdict was handed down before Los Angeles Superior Court Richard I. Ibanez in 1983, it was considered the largest award in the relatively new field of "bad faith" insurance cases in which an insurer is sued for failing to pay claims promptly or fully.

Citing his insurance carrier's refusal to pay his legal bills, former Lincoln Savings & Loan owner Charles H. Keating Jr. has told a federal judge that he will not defend himself against civil claims that he defrauded small investors of more than $250 million. In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Bilby in Tucson, Stephen C. Neal, Keating's lawyer, said his client "will be unable to conduct any defense" in the civil trial.

Four of the defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed by investors in American Principals Holdings Inc. have agreed to settle investor claims by paying an aggregate sum of more than $10 million, attorneys representing APHI investors said Friday.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that an insurance carrier must defend Charles H. Keating Jr. and other American Continental Corp. officials in litigation brought by the company's investors. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles also ruled that the "potential liability" of Keating and others stemming from the lawsuits is covered under a policy issued by National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh.