Transit Casualty tops $1 billion as it nears end

The Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After nearly 15 years, court proceedings are finally nearing an end in one of the nation's largest insurance company bankruptcies.

The receivership of Transit Casualty Insurance will have collected almost $1.6 billion and paid out more than $1.2 billion when it ends; the expenses will have totaled about $350 million, said Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder.

The payout includes an additional $280 million over the next six to eight months, which Kinder determined was appropriate at a hearing Friday.

Kinder said payments reached 60 cents on every $1 for corporate claimants and 70 cents on every $1 for individual claimants.

Originally headquartered in St. Louis and founded in 1945 as an insurer of bus companies, Transit Casualty was based in Los Angeles when it became insolvent in 1985.