Originally from Journal of American Arbitration (JAA)

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I. OVERVIEW

Employer’s Insurance Company of Wausau (Wausau) is a re-insurer to Century Indemnity Company (Century).   Century insured Aqua-Chem, Inc. (Aqua-Chem) against asbestos bodily injury claims.   Upon satisfying these claims on behalf of Aqua-Chem, Century billed its reinsurers for their alleged shares of the claims.   Wausau, along with several of Century’s other reinsurers, failed to pay Century.   In response, Century demanded that the reinsurers participate in a consolidated arbitration.   Wausau was a party to a First and Second Excess Agreement (the “Agreements”) with Century regarding Aqua-Chem’s policy.   The Agreements’ arbitration clauses specified both the jurisdiction of the arbitration and the procedure for selecting the arbitrators, but were silent on the procedure for consolidating arbitral proceedings.