ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND PREVAILS AGAINST AON RISK SERVICES.The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $16.5 million award by Archer Daniels Midland The Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM), is a conglomeration based in Decatur, Illinois. ADMoperates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into numerous products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed Co. against Aon Risk Services in a dispute over insurance coverage on losses when 1993 flooding on the Mississippi hampered shipments of corn. Archer Daniels Midland Co. v. Aon Risk Services et al. (02-3788) arose from layers of property insurance ADM See add/drop multiplexer. (language) ADM - A picture query language, extension of Sequel2. ["An Image-Oriented Database System", Y. Takao et al, in Database Techniques for Pictorial Applications, A. Blaser ed, pp. 527-538]. bought through a "difference-in-conditions" program - intended to include all risks not specifically included. Multiple insurers provided layers of coverage totaling $100 million, with the underlying insurers responsible for the first $50 million and an excess layer of $50 million kicking in after that. All the insurers were bound by the same terms, drafted by ADM. In 1988, ADM balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. at a premium increase for the excess layer and directed its broker, Aon, to find a new carrier. Aon got the coverage from Hartford Fire Insurance Co. but failed to include the standard coverage for business interruption and extra expense. ADM claimed losses of $166 million from the 1993 flooding, including business interruption losses under language covering "damage to or destruction of real or personal property . . . of any supplier of goods or services which results in the inability of such supplier" to supply them. ADM claimed the Midwestern farmers whose crops were affected as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, which maintained the Mississippi waterway waterway, natural or artificial navigable inland body of water, or system of interconnected bodies of water, used for transportation, may include a lake, river, canal, or any combination of these. , fit the definition of suppliers, but the insurers said they didn't. The insurers - except Hartford - settled after a federal judge agreed with ADM's interpretation. The judge said Hartford's excess policy covered only direct physical damage to ADM's property. ADM sued Aon for $50 million, alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty Noun 1. fiduciary duty - the legal duty of a fiduciary to act in the best interests of the beneficiary legal duty - acts which the law requires be done or forborne and negligence. Aon admitted negligence but challenged ADM's assessment of damages ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES. After an interlocutory judgment has been obtained, the damages must be, ascertained; the act of thus fixing the amount of damages is called the assessment of damages. 2. In cases sounding in damages, (q.v. . Nevertheless, a jury awarded ADM $16.5 million. Aon appealed on a number of grounds, including whether ADM's hedging had reduced its losses and whether its expert's calculations were accurate. But and Eighth Circuit panel affirmed the judgment Jan. 21 in an opinion written by Judge Donald P. Lay Donald Pomery Lay (August 24, 1926–April 29, 2007) was an American jurist who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for 40 years, including as chief judge from 1979 to 1982. . |
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