Dyoll Insurance Company Liquidation Team to Make Final Payment to Creditors

Sabrina Gordon (Business Reporter, Jamaica Gleaner)–Dyoll Insurance Company liquidation team, Kenneth Krys and John Lee, will make a fifth and final dividend payment to creditors, inclusive of a settlement from Dyoll Group.

The size of the pending payment has not been disclosed.

At their last report two years ago, the liquidators disclosed payouts amounting to J$1.157 billion, against total claims of about J$2 billion.

The fifth payment is to be approved by the court next week.

“We are awaiting a payment from Dyoll Group, which will be used along with money that we have to make the payment,” said Lee, a partner at Pricewater-houseCoopers Jamaica.

“While a settlement has already been arrived at, there is a court date on July 26 to sanction the payment,” he said.

The collapsed general insurance company brought an initial claim of J$117 million against its parent Dyoll Group in 2008 for overcharged management fees which was later tripled to J$388 million.

Dyoll Insurance was subsequently awarded J$100 million in an out-of-court settlement of the case.

This money, Lee said, would finance the fifth dividend payment to creditors, but the size of the payout is still being finalised, he said, reiterating a statement issued to creditors jointly by Krys and Lee on July 12.

“The joint liquidators are proceeding with the necessary court applications for the declaration of this fifth interim dividend, and the quantum of the interim dividend payout will be communicated once we have received approval from the court,” said the circular.

However, well-placed sources say the fifth dividend payment could be in the region of 10 cents on the dollar.

Dyoll Insurance, which is in receivership, has already paid out 70 cents per dollar owed to creditors, which number in excess of 4,000.

The liquidators have reported that up to September 2010 dividend payments in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands totalled US$13.485 million or J$1.157 billion.

The same 2010 report said the total claims made to that point were split US$6.783 million or J$582 million from Jamaica and US$16.483 million from Cayman Islands creditors – a total of US$23.266 million.

The company went bankrupt after it was swamped with claims from owners of Hurricane Ivan-devastated properties and crops in September 2004.

Dyoll wrote coverage for properties in both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, but it was mostly claims from the latter market which sent the insurer into insolvency.

Meanwhile, Lee said the liquidation process is just about wrapped up.

“There are a few things outstanding; there are still claims in court where the litigants have not come forward to achieve an out-of-court settlement, nor have the attorneys pursued the matter to bring conclusion. They have not gone for a court date or anything,” said Lee.

“But we are working on getting settlements,” he said.

Already, in September 2011 the liquidation team advised that Dyoll had agreed to a settlement of its US$19-million claim against Aon Benfield Canada ULC (Aon Re) for failure to exercise its duties as Dyoll’s reinsurance broker with reasonable care and skill.

The settlement amount was not disclosed.

Other claims on the court dockets, according to Dyoll Insurance lawyer Debra Dodd, include injury claims for which judgments are still pending.