Bermuda-based Northeastern Insurance Co. has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York, citing a flood of sex abuse claims tied to the state’s extended statute of limitations.
Court filings show the insurer entered runoff in 2017 with what it described as adequate reserves.
That changed in 2019 when New York enacted the Child Victims Act, reopening decades-old cases.
The Bermuda Supreme Court has a liquidation (“winding-up”) proceeding of Northeastern ongoing; the Chapter 15 filing seeks U.S. recognition of that as the foreign main proceeding.
Northeastern said the law triggered 55 claims dating back as far as 40 years, none of which had been anticipated or reserved for. According to the filing, those liabilities now likely exceed the company’s assets.
New York’s “Child Victims Act” (CVA) passed in 2019 extended the statute of limitations for civil claims of child sexual abuse, which triggered claims against Northeastern for incidents going back decades (up to 40 years in some cases) that the insurer had not foreseen or reserved for.
Joint provisional liquidators Michael Morrison and Mark Allitt of Teneo (Bermuda) asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to recognize a petition already before Bermuda’s Supreme Court.
That proceeding, they said, was meant to trigger a stay of actions under Bermuda law and protect assets for creditors as a whole.
Northeastern was formed to provide insurance and reinsurance coverage for shareholder hospitals, affiliated nursing homes, summer camps, and other nonprofits tied to the UJA/Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.
Policies covered exposures ranging from medical professional liability and D&O to workers’ compensation and auto liability.
By mid-2025, the number of CVA-related lawsuits and claims against Northeastern had grown quickly (30 lawsuits as of June, 53 by August in one report).
As of June 2025, Northeast faced 30 child abuse lawsuits, a number that rose to 53 by August.
Due to this unanticipated exposure, the insurer says its total losses and loss expense reserves have almost doubled, increasing from $15.7 mn to $29.1 mn, an amount it will not be able to pay.
Northeast’s board has determined it is insolvent on both a cash flow and balance sheet basis and will not be able to raise sufficient funds to meet all of the anticipated settlement payments for the CVA claims.
It was incorporated in 1975 to insure and reinsure medical malpractice, comprehensive general liability, auto liability, directors and officers and workers’ compensation for its shareholder hospitals, camps, nursing homes, and other not-for-profits affiliated with UJA.
From 2012 to 2015 the company also reinsured FFH Insurance Co. for hospital professional liability and general liability. These reinsurance contracts were terminated in 2017.
Among the hospitals that Northeast insured were Mount Sinai, Montefiore, Beth Israel, Maimonides, and Center Light Health System.
The filing comes amid similar pressures across the region. Earlier this year, the Diocese of Trenton sued a group of carriers, accusing them of stalling on allocation and cost-sharing while the church faces what it called an “onslaught” of claims under New Jersey’s Child Victims Act. Those lawsuits reach back to the 1960s.
