An XL Group Ltd. unit has prevailed in bad-faith litigation filed against it in connection with its securities brokers professional liability policy, says a federal appeals court in upholding a lower court’s ruling.

Alder, Montana-based Sauerbier Ranches Inc. had been among plaintiffs who filed suit against Englewood, Colorado-based investment firm Welton Street Investments L.L.C., according to court papers in Sauerbier Ranches Inc. et al. v. Catlin Specialty Insurance Co. That case was eventually settled.

Catlin Specialty, a unit of Hamilton, Bermuda-based XL Group, had issued a securities broker/dealer’s professional liability insurance policy for Welton for the period from December 2009 through August 2010 that provided a $1 million limit of liability per claim, with a $2 million aggregate, according to court papers.

During the mediation that led to the settlement, Catlin took the position that Sauerbier’s claims, as well as five other separately filed claims, were all “interrelated wrongful acts” and consequently it would only offer a proportionate amount of $1 million, rather than the $2 million aggregate amount in its policy, according to the complaint.

Sauerbier, which said it had incurred $1.2 million in damages in connection with its investment, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Helena, Montana, charging bad faith and stating Catlin should have based its payment on the $2 million aggregate.

Following a March 2016 trial, the District Court ruled in Catlin’s favor and dismissed the case. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the lower court’s ruling in its decision Monday.

“The District Court properly granted Catlin Specialty Insurance Company’s motion for judgment as a matter of law,” said the ruling. “Here, the insurance policy is governed by New York law, and cases applying New York law support Catlin’s interpretation of the ‘Interrelated Wrongful Acts’ provision,” said the ruling, in affirming the lower court’s judgment.