GMT partner Frank Cordell represents Cadet Manufacturing Company in coverage litigation with its general-liability insurers in federal court in Tacoma.  Cadet entered into a settlement with two of the three defendant insurers.  The settlement was contingent on obtaining a court order protecting the settling insurers from any future contribution claims from the non-settling insurer.  The existence of such claims are a common impediment to settlement in multi-insurer cases.  On April 7, 2006, Judge Burgess granted Cadet's and the settling insurers' motion for an order barring those contribution claims.  The opinion may be found at Cadet Mfg. Co. v. American Ins. Co., 2006 WL 910000 (W.D. Wa. April 7, 2006).  The fate of non-settling insurers' contribution claims is an important emerging issue in the arena of long-tail coverage claims, and GMT has been at the forefront of establishing the claim-bar principle in the Washington courts.