First National Bank of Maryland filed suit...

First National Bank of Maryland filed suit seeking $84 million in damages from the Ticor financial concern in Los Angeles stemming from the default of a Ticor mortgage-insurance business. First National, the trustee for lenders holding $500 million of TMIC Insurance Co.-insured mortgage certificates, contends in its U.S. District Court lawsuit that Ticor’s spinoff of TMIC in 1985 fraudulently shielded it from claims against the insolvent mortgage insurer. Last Friday, TMIC’s state conservator, the California Department of Insurance, announced plans to liquidate the $13.9-billion mortgage insurer unless significant concessions could be wrested from its claims holders. The department said TMIC’s liabilities exceeded reserves by an estimated $250 million.