General Electric liable for primary layer

A New York state court has ruled that General Electric is liable for the first US$5mn in cover for claims filed by people exposed to asbestos in General Electric products. The court rejected General Electric’s argument that claims on policies issued between 1965 and 1985 should be accounted for as a single occurrence. This would have allowed the company to pass on around 90,000 pending asbestos claims to its excess insurers.