Subject: French Insurer Drops Its Decision to Suspend Policies in AIDS Case 
Date: Published: 8/17/92 (46 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    French Insurer Drops
    Its Decision to Suspend
    Policies in AIDS Case
    ----
    Special to The Wall Street Journal

    PARIS -- Union des Assurances de Paris, France's largest
 insurance company, reversed an earlier decision and dropped plans to
 suspend the policies of 25 regional French blood transfusion centers
 pending further study.
    The state-controlled insurance concern said Thursday that it
 would suspend the policies over disclosures made at a trial of
 public officials accused of knowingly allowing the use of
 AIDS-tainted blood in transfusion centers.
    But the company reversed itself Friday, saying it regretted
 "certain emotion" that followed its first decision and had dropped
 it pending "a more in-depth study."  The company said the decision to
 suspend the centers' policies was "based on law" and "had neither
 the purpose nor the consequence of impeding the compensation of the
 victims."
    In the trial, Michel Garretta, former director of France's
 National Blood Transfusion Center, and three of his associates are
 charged with allowing sale of AIDS-infected blood in 1985 after they
 had become aware of the contamination.  More than 1,200 hemophiliacs
 contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome from the blood, and
 256 have died so far.
    A spokesman for the insurer said Thursday that the trial brought
 out a letter sent by Mr. Garretta to the blood transfusion centers
 on June 19, 1985.  The letter warned the centers about the AIDS
 danger and asked them to study their insurance policies "to adapt
 them to the greater risks linked to the transfusions."
    The insurance company spokesman said knowledge of the letter at
 the time "was hidden from us" and that "therefore, the contracts are
 null and void, in our opinion."  UAP and other insurers normally
 would supply coverage to the transfusion centers if a customer sued
 because he or she had received contaminated or inappropriate blood.
 Those who contracted AIDS in 1985 are filing for damages from
 various centers.

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