Process wants to execute R$ 4.2 billion in insurance for Chape’s flight – 04/26/2023 – Sport

The law firm PodhurstOrseck sent a letter to its approximately 40 clients in Brazil. Dated April 19, the correspondence informs a change of strategy: to open a new process in the United States against the reinsurer Tokio Marine and start the execution process of US$ 844 million (R$ 4.2 billion).

Actions in the US courts are currently the only hope for survivors and families of victims of the Chapecoense tragedy to receive insurance for the aircraft.

Tokio Marine was the reinsurer of the LaMia plane that crashed outside Medellín, Colombia, on November 28, 2016. There were 71 dead. The flight was taking the Chapecoense team, managers, fans and journalists to the first match of the Copa Sudamericana final that year, against Atlético Nacional-COL.

“The effect of this separate action will be that Tokio Marine will no longer be able to present many of the technical arguments alleged in opposition to our efforts to add them as defendants in the original action. [Poderemos] proceed more efficiently in its action against them”, states the text of the letter, to which the Sheet had access.

The report sent an e-mail to Tokio Marine’s office in London last Monday (24th) and, until the publication of this text, did not receive a response.

In Brazil, the indemnification actions referring to the insurance would be doomed to failure because Aon (broker) and Tokio Marine (reinsurer) would claim that the policy was overdue and that LaMia had disrespected the terms of the agreement, which prohibited her from flying to Colombia.

The original insurer of the flight, the Bolivian Bisa, does not have the financial capacity to make the payment, although it had committed to do so. Never complied.

Under US law, action is possible because Aon and Tokio Marine would not have complied with the protocol for canceling the policy. It could not be considered void just because it was in arrears or because LaMia violated the territoriality clause. According to PodhurstOrseck’s arguments, on behalf of the victims, this could only happen after the Bolivian airline had been formally notified of the fact. That would never have happened.

In September 2020, Florida State Court Judge Martin Zilber upheld the case and stipulated the sentence at $844 million. It is this value that the law firm wants to start executing and, as stated in the letter, the new process would circumvent the arguments already presented by Tokio Marine. The amount would also be subject to interest.

The reinsurer had created what it called a “humanitarian fund” in Brazil for the victims. Whoever was willing to receive it would have, as a condition, to waive any action against Tokio Marine in any country. The amount paid was US$ 225,000 (R$ 1.1 million today) per family.

In the text of the document that sealed the agreement, the company called the plane crash an “incident”. According to the definition of Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency), incident “is an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which may affect the safety of the aircraft”. Accident is any occurrence related to the operation of an aircraft in which any person is seriously injured or killed.

Tokio Marine and Aon obtained an injunction in London to paralyze the process in the United States. The decision regarding the reinsurer was reversed. As for the broker, not yet.

“While we can certainly counter Tokio Marine’s allegations, firmly believing that there is no basis in their allegations, we have made a strategic decision to proceed in a way that will ultimately deny several of Tokio Marine’s technical allegations,” completes the PodhurstOrseck correspondence. .

The action in the United States was possible because there are emails exchanged between American companies and LaMia before the flight that would take the Chapecoense players to Medellín.