St. Paul Travelers Receives Court Approval for Settlements of the Statutory, Hawaii and Common Law Direct Actions

Business Wire, August 18, 2004

SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. (St. Paul Travelers) (NYSE:STA) today announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has issued an order granting approval of the settlements of all pending statutory-based and Hawaii asbestos-related direct actions and substantially all common law asbestos-related direct actions pending against its Travelers Property Casualty Corp. subsidiaries (Travelers) and clarifying that such actions are barred under the Court's prior injunctions. The settlement and Court ruling resolves all pending asbestos-related statutory direct actions against Travelers, including Wise v. Travelers and Meninger v. Travelers and bars all future asbestos-related statutory direct actions against Travelers in West Virginia, Massachusetts and other states in which Travelers believes plaintiffs might try to bring such actions. The settlement and Court ruling also resolves substantially all pending, and bars similar future, asbestos-related common law direct actions against Travelers. The Court order is subject to appeal, which, if taken, must be filed within 10 days.

As announced on November 21, 2003 and March 15, 2004, Travelers entered into a settlement of certain statutory-based direct action claims, including purported class actions in West Virginia and elsewhere. The statutory-based actions alleged Travelers violated state insurance unfair claim and trade practices statutes while handling asbestos claims. On May 24, 2004, St. Paul Travelers announced that Travelers had entered into a settlement of substantially all the common law asbestos-related direct actions. The common-law asbestos actions alleged, among other things, a general, non-statutory duty to disclose to the public the hazards of asbestos. Both settlements were subject to final court approval and were conditioned on the Court entering an order clarifying that these direct actions and any similar actions that may be filed in the future are barred by the prior injunction and orders entered in connection with the Johns-Manville bankruptcy proceedings.

As previously announced, the court-approved settlements will make aggregate funds of up to $445 million available to claimants plus up to $57.5 million in legal fees.

About St. Paul Travelers

St. Paul Travelers is a leading provider of insurance and asset management services. For more information, visit www.stpaultravelers.com.