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Appeals Insurance Litigation Life Insurance

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Vacates Jury Award in Favor of Insurer Where Unjust Enrichment Claim Is Subject of Express Insurance Contract

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In MONY Life Insurance Co. v. Perez, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals set aside a jury verdict in favor of MONY Life Insurance Co. on its unjust enrichment claim against policyholder Bernard Perez, holding that an...more

Carlton Fields

Litigation Under Construction: Recent Life Insurance and Long-Term Care Developments

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In Potovsky v. Lincoln Benefit Life Co., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the insureds’ complaint for failure to sufficiently allege damages regarding the denial of a long-term care claim....more

Bennett Jones LLP

Ontario Court of Appeal Holds That a Claim is Limitations-Barred for an Entire Class

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In Fehr v Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2024 ONCA 847 (Fehr), the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the representative plaintiffs’ appeal seeking post-certification leave to amend their statement of claim and to...more

Carlton Fields

Universal Life Policyowner Not Entitled to Pro Rata Premium Refund Following Insured’s Death

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Insured’s annual planned premium did not implicate New York statute requiring refund of premium “actually paid for any period” beyond an insured’s death....more

Carlton Fields

Life Insurer Has No Duty to Investigate Forged Policy Change Form

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The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the insurer where it paid a death benefit to the person whose name appeared on a change form, notwithstanding suggestions of fraud....more

Carlton Fields

No Saving Grace for Policyholders

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In McHugh v. Protective Life Insurance, the California Court of Appeal held that a statute requiring 60-day grace periods for term life insurance policies did not apply retroactively. ...more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

New Jersey Supreme Court Rules on Insurable Interest and Return of Premiums

On June 4, 2019, in a case captioned Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., the Supreme Court of New Jersey answered two questions certified to it by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third...more

Carlton Fields

Life Insurer Permitted to Adjust Policy Proceeds Pursuant to Misstatement-of-Age Provision

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In Jackson National Life Insurance Co. v. Dobbins, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for an insurer in an interpleader action, which resolved, among other things,...more

Mayer Brown

Sixth Circuit Invalidates Tennessee’s Punitive-Damages Cap and Holds That Punitive Damages Are Available Under Tennessee Law For...

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Should divided panels of federal appellate courts really be deciding state-law issues of first impression? That’s what happened last month in Lindenberg v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. In Lindenberg, two Sixth Circuit...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Sixth Circuit Rules That Tennessee Cap on Punitive Damages Is Unconstitutional

In 2011, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed the Tennessee Civil Justice Act, a tort reform measure limiting monetary damages. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-104. This law places a cap on punitive damages of two times the...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fort Worth Court of Appeal Reverses Judgment Awarding Bad Faith Damages Against Insurer

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While the November 8, 2018 Court of Appeal of Texas, Fort Worth Division opinion reverses a trial court’s judgment on grounds of legal insufficiency and standing, the court’s analysis and application of current Texas bad...more

Carlton Fields

Louisiana Appeals Court Affirms Class Certification in Lingering Litigation Against Department of Insurance

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A Louisiana appeals court recently affirmed class certification in consolidated lawsuits, pending since 1991, against Louisiana’s Department of Insurance, other related state entities, and the state’s excess insurance...more

Carlton Fields

Reinsurer’s Summary Judgment Upheld On Motion For Rehearing

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Capitol Life Insurance Co. moved the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas for rehearing of the court’s prior affirmance of summary judgment against Capitol in favor of MetLife Insurance Company USA, MetLife...more

Bennett Jones LLP

Ontario Court of Appeal Certifies Class Action Against Sun Life

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On September 5, 2018, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Fehr v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, overturning certain parts of the motion judge’s decision and certifying a class action against Sun Life...more

Carlton Fields

Plaintiffs’ Notice That the ‘Taxman Cometh’ Was Sufficient to Trigger Statute of Limitations

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In a November 16, 2017 ruling, a California appellate court affirmed a summary judgment ruling in favor of several financial advisors, and insurer American General Life Insurance Company, holding that plaintiffs’ fraud and...more

Carlton Fields

Illinois Federal Court Rejects Twin Suits Challenging Dividend Payment Practices

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Challenges to mutual life insurers’ discretion in setting dividend scales date back over 100 years. Earlier this year, in Anderson v. Country Life Insurance Company and Ochoa v. State Farm Life Insurance Company, a federal...more

Carlton Fields

Denial of Reinstatement of Lapsed Life Insurance Policy Affirmed Due to Failure to Satisfy Required Underwriting Standard

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In European Pensions Management Limited v. Columbus Life Insurance Co., a pension benefit plan that had purchased a life insurance policy on the secondary market and then permitted it to lapse for non-payment of premiums sued...more

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment or Insurer in STOLI Case

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In Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada v. U.S. Bank Nat. Ass’n, the Eleventh Circuit recently clarified that where a life insurance policy lacks an insurable interest at its inception and is thus void ab initio, prejudgment...more

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Looks To Alabama’s Doctrine Of “Intertwining” To Determine Non-Signatory Cannot Be Compelled To Arbitrate

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Under Alabama law, “arbitration may be compelled under the doctrine of ‘intertwining’ where arbitrable and nonarbitrable claims are so closely related that the party to a controversy subject to arbitration is equitably...more

Carlton Fields

Appellate Courts + STOLI = Mixed Results

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In recent years, federal district courts addressing claims and defenses with respect to stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) schemes have reached a variety of results. Accordingly, federal appellate courts have...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Reduces Punitive Damages in Insurance Bad Faith Case Again: Arellano v. Primerica Life Insurance

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In Arellano v. Primerica Life Insurance Company, 235 Ariz. 371, 332 P.3d 597 (App. 2014), despite finding an insurer’s conduct moderately to highly reprehensible, the Arizona Court of Appeals recently reduced a punitive...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Seventh Circuit Requires "Cash on the Barrelhead" From Interpleaders

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Judge Easterbrook and his colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit aren’t about to exercise jurisdiction over a civil action of interpleader merely on credit or promises to pay. The plaintiff has to...more

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