recent lawsuit filed by Travelers Insurance Company against Sedgwick James Inc., said Mr. Robert Hug, president of SMS.

Sedgwick James Inc. is the US retail operation of the American group.

The Bermuda company had briefly managed a captive insurance company for the National Football League in the 1980s but not the workers' compensation fund linked to the lawsuit, he said.

SMS resigned as principal representative and manager of that company several years ago, said Mr. Hug.

In the lawsuit, filed last Thursday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the company accuses Sedgwick James Inc. of trying to conceal the insolvency of a workers compensation insurance fund National Football League owners set up in the 1980s.

According to Bloomberg business news service, Travelers said it relied on inaccurate financial data about the self-insurance fund.

That data was provided by Sedgwick in its capacity as the NFL owners' agent when it agreed to be the fronting insurer for the workers compensation programme, Bloomberg reported Travelers, a unit of New York-based Travelers Group Inc., said in the suit that it lost "millions of dollars'' when it paid out insurance claims for injured NFL players and the insolvent NFL fund did not reimburse them.

NFL owners were not named in the lawsuit.

However, Travelers said the suit is related to another complaint filed against the Chicago Bears Football Club.

In addition to unspecified damages representing the amount in claims Travelers paid out but was never reimbursed for, the company is seeking at least $30 million in punitive damages.