In a letter dated June 25, 2007, the Consumer Federation of America urged insurance commissioners around the country to ban the use of anti-concurrent-causation clauses (“ACC clauses”)  in insurance policies. 

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Read More Consumer Federation Of America Urges Ban On Anti-Concurrent-Causation Clauses

On July 27, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission posted two separate proposing releases that relate to shareholder access to a public company’s proxy ballot in connection with director elections.  The unusual aspect of these releases is that they represent alternative and very different approaches to the same issue. 

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Read More SEC Releases Competing Proposals For Shareholder Participation In Contested Elections

On July 12, 2007, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that, where a vehicle causing an accident is owned by a governmental entity and is insured by an insolvent insurer, the Massachusetts Insurers Insolvency Fund is not obligated to compensate the injured individual unless and until the injured individual’s own uninsured motor vehicle coverage has been exhausted. 

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Read More Massachusetts Insurers Insolvency Fund Not Implicated Until Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage Is Exhausted

In Adams v. Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance, No. 98-00020-CV-CDL-4 (July 25, 2007), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s opinion that res judicata barred appellants’ claims, owing to the settlement of an earlier consumer class action against Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company (“Southern Farm”). 

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Read More Eleventh Circuit Bars Life Insurance Actions Due to Prior Class Action Settlement

On July 23, 2007, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. announced settlements of recent investigations for a total of $115 million in restitution and penalties.  Specifically, the Company entered into a settlement with the New York Attorney General’s Office relating to an investigation of variable annuity market timing issues. 

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Read More The Hartford Announces Settlement of Recent Investigations

In Jurupa Valley Spectrum, LLC v. National Indem. Co., et al., 06 Civ. 4023 (S.D.N.Y., June 29, 2007), the Southern District of New York examined whether a beneficiary of surety bonds had standing to bring a cause of action for bond payments against the reinsurer of a bond issuer. 

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Read More Beneficiary of Surety Bond Lacks Standing to Assert a Direct Action Against Reinsurer

By Order dated July 16, 2007, Judge Kaplan confirmed his previous holding, in connection with KPMG tax shelter litigation, that the government’s interference with KPMG’s payment of the legal fees of its employees and former employees (under the now-superseded Thompson Memo) violated the employee’s constitutional rights. 

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Read More Further Analysis of the KPMG Dismissal