November 11, 2015 (Wilmington, DE) - PoolRe Insurance Corp. and others announce the settlement of a long-running case against Organizational Strategies, Inc. , a defense contractor based in Virginia. The settlement, concluded in the last few days, paid in excess of $2.2 million to PoolRe and others by OSI and its owners, Nicolette and William Hendricks.
Among other issues, in 2011 OSI made demands to improperly manipulate the pooling arrangement administered by PoolRe, which PoolRe and its captive manager and other advisors considered unlawful. The ultimate result was that OSI and its affiliates were excluded from the 2012 insurance pooling arrangement. Based upon advice given by Jeff Simpson of the Delaware law firm of Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, OSI then made a claim on the pool even though OSI was not part of the 2012 pool and had not paid premiums to the pool in 2012. As an insurance company, PoolRe responded by seeking a declaratory judgment that it had no liability to the OSI parties.
"Basically, the OSI parties got bad advice from both their lawyer and their CPA. The OSI parties made wild claims and took positions that were not defensible. At the end of the day, after paying their lawyers almost $2 million, OSI was left in an untenable position which was twice rejected in arbitration proceedings. We understand that there are serious discussions taking place with Mr. Simpson and the Gordon, Fournaris law firm, as well there should be," explained Stewart Feldman on behalf of Capstone Associated Services, Ltd., the captive manager for PoolRe. "This is a perfect example of a law firm - here Gordon, Fournaris' Jeff Simpson - working up the client to generate litigation business for his firm. Unfortunately, Mr. Simpson, a 'professed expert is new to the captive insurance business with his client learning the lesson the hard way. We think the Gordon, Fournaris law firm now understands that running insurance companies is a long way from drafting wills and trusts."
Also advising the OSI parties in its initial claims against PoolRe was Christine Williamson of the accounting firm CohnRezick (formerly Watkins Meegan).
Inquiries made to OSI, Mr. Simpson, and Ms. Williamson were not returned.