For Immediate Release:

August 2, 2006

Contact: Kristine Lelong

(504) 861-5883

Michael St. Martin

(985) 876-3891

Loyola University New Orleans Files Suit against Insurer for Failure to Properly Adjust Property and Business Interruption Claims

(New Orleans) — Due to the approach of the one year deadline for filing claims related to Hurricane Katrina, Loyola University New Orleans has been forced to file suit against its insurer, Continental Casualty Company, a division of CNA, for the insurer’s failure to timely pay on its documented property and business interruption claims. CNA is the country’s seventh largest commercial insurer and the fourteenth largest property and casualty insurer.

Loyola’s claims arise from the substantial property damage sustained by the university and as a result of the necessary closure of the campus for the entire fall semester of 2005 due to the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Loyola also experienced reduced enrollment for the spring semester as some students elected not to return to New Orleans to continue their education.

From mid-to-late April, Loyola sent extensive documentation of its insured losses to Continental Casualty Company. These losses included over $6 million in property damage and over $22.5 million in time element business interruption losses. Loyola has spent approximately $200,000 in order to have these losses calculated and authenticated by the national accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Despite such documentation of both the property and business interruption losses, Continental Casualty Company has, at this time, only “advanced” Loyola $4 million. Loyola has filed this litigation as a class action on behalf of itself and all others similarly situated in order to recover the insurance proceeds due under the applicable Continental Casualty Company policies.

Loyola’s rich history of Jesuit education in New Orleans dates back to 1849 and it was the first university to reopen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Loyola is being represented in this lawsuit by the law firm of St. Martin, Williams & Bourque on a pro bono basis.