New York Developments

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The Republic of Iraq moved to compel arbitration of its lawsuit against BNP Paribas pursuant to an arbitration clause in a contract between the United Nations and BNP.  The suit sought to recover damages stemming from BNP’s involvement in the alleged corruption of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.  BNP cross-moved to enjoin arbitration. …
Read More New York Federal Court Finds That The Republic of Iraq Cannot Arbitrate Claims Related to United Nations “Oil-for-Food” Scandal Based Upon Third-Party Beneficiary Status

Last week, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) announced that it has changed the name of its New York office (the “NY Office”) from the “Securities Valuation Office” to the “Capital Markets and Investment Analysis Office.”  The name change is in connection with changes made to the responsibilities of the NY Office. …
Read More NAIC Changes Name and Scope of New York Office

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Monday he would sue the federal government if it didn’t immediately conduct a full environmental review of proposed hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking”) regulations for an area that includes the New York City watershed. …
Read More New York AG Threatens to Sue Federal Government Over Hydrofracking

Unlike other several other states as we reported here, New York has enacted legislation as part of its budget bill that does not authorize the state to enter into the Surplus Lines Insurance Multi-State Compliance Compact (“SLIMPACT”), or any other surplus lines tax allocation compact.  SLIMPACT is an interstate compact that is designed to, among other things, allow for the adoption of uniform standards across participating compact states and uniform tax allocation formulas on multi-state risks. …
Read More New York Rejects SLIMPACT

The New York State Insurance Department (NYID) recently promulgated a Tenth Amendment to New York Regulations 17, 20 and 20-A (11 NYCRR 125) (the Amendment), effective January 1, 2011, which authorizes the NYID Superintendent (the Superintendent) to reduce the amount of collateral required for domestic insurers to receive full financial statement credit for reinsurance ceded to unauthorized reinsurers satisfying the requirements detailed below. …
Read More New York Amends Credit for Reinsurance Regulation, Relaxing Unauthorized Reinsurer Collateral Requirements

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge’s Insurance and Reinsurance Department recently published its latest Newsletter, Insurance & Reinsurance Review – March 2011, which contains nine articles about various topics in the insurance and reinsurance industry. …
Read More Insurance & Reinsurance Review – March 2011

On February 17, 2011, the New York Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion holding that “an insurance broker does not have a common-law fiduciary duty to disclose to its customers ‘incentive’ arrangements that the broker has entered into with insurance companies.”  In People ex rel. Cuomo v. Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc., a case brought by the New York Attorney General, the court refuted the plaintiff’s argument that a fiduciary duty is inherent because brokers maintain a principal-agent relationship with their customers. …
Read More New York Court of Appeals: Brokers Have No Common-Law Fiduciary Duty to Disclose Incentive Arrangements

EAPD is hosting a complimentary 60 minute webinar on Friday, March 4, 2011 on proposed merging New York’s Insurance and Banking Departments and the Consumer Protection Board into a single state agency. …
Read More COMPLIMENTARY WEBINAR: New York Proposes to Merge its Insurance and Banking Departments and Consumer Protection Board into a Single Agency

New York’s highest court recently ruled insurance brokers do not have a common law duty to disclose to their customers the fact that they may have received incentive payments received from insurance companies.  The practice of non-disclosure, however, is now prohibited by an Insurance Department regulation, which did not exist at the time of the conduct at issue in the lawsuit. …
Read More New York Court of Appeals: Brokers Have No Common-Law Duty to Disclose Incentives, But Are Required To Do So by New Regulation

In November, we reported on the New York Court of Appeals’ decision in Kramer v. Phoenix Life Insurance Company, 15 N.Y.3d 539 (2010), in which the Court determined that a person may purchase a life insurance policy and then immediately transfer it to someone who lacks an insurance interest in that life, even if the policy were purchased with the intent of selling it. …
Read More Update: District Judge May Toss N.Y. STOLI Suit After Court of Appeals Ruling