Liberty Mutual released the following statement regarding its filing of opposition papers:
Liberty Mutual Group today announced that its Ohio Casualty and Safeco units filed their opposition papers to a proposed “settlement” of the class action suit pending against American International Group for their decades of intentionally underreporting workers compensation premium.
The “settlement” proposed by seven Intervenors, (ACE, Auto-Owners, Companion, FirstComp, Hartford, Technology and Travelers) is in AIG’s self-interest and the interest of several intervenors, but it is detrimental to the class of over 500 insurance companies victimized by AIG’s admitted wrongdoing.
The currently known extent of AIG’s underreporting is $6.1 billion, nearly three times the amount that the settlement is predicated upon. Conservatively, the actual damage to the insurance industry caused by AIG historic misbehavior exceeds $1.5 billion.
The two Liberty Mutual Group units stepped forward two years ago to make certain that AIG adequately addresses their systemic practice of underreporting workers compensation premium, and they remain in the best position to adequately represent the class and prosecute the claims against AIG. The proposed settlement is nothing more than an attempt by AIG to circumvent an accurate accounting by a court-appointed statistical expert of AIG’s decades of actual underreporting so the company could sidestep its own culpability and avoid exemplary damages. Liberty Mutual is confident that the Court will see the proposed settlement as the byproduct of a collusive process between AIG and hopelessly conflicted parties.
Source: Liberty Mutual Group