(Reuters) – Here are some events of interest to the Insurance Law community this week. All times are local unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, Aug. 11
9 a.m. – The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear its first COVID-19 business income interruption insurance cases, as three groups of policyholders appeal from dismissals of their lawsuits by federal courts in Arizona and California. According to the Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker compiled by the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the University of Connecticut Insurance Law Center, the 9th Circuit had 60 COVID-related appeals pending, representing more than one-third of all federal appeals as of Aug. 5. Wednesday’s cases are: Chattanooga Pro Baseball v. National Casualty Co., No. 20-17422; Selane Products Inc. v. Continental Casualty Co., No. 21-55123; and Mudpie Inc. v. Travelers Casualty Ins., No. 20-16858. For Chattanooga Pro Baseball: Orrie Levy of Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna. For National Casualty: Brian Cabianca of Squire Patton Boggs. For Selane Products: Kirk Pasich of Pasich LLP. For Continental Casualty: Kannon Shanmugam of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. For Mudpie: Andre Mura of Gibbs Law Group. For Travelers: Theodore Boutrous Jr. of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
9 a.m. – The same 9th Circuit panel will take up United Behavioral Health’s appeal from a finding that it violated ERISA by using unreasonable standards to deny coverage of mental health and substance abuse treatment, and from an order requiring it to reprocess about 66,000 of those claims using guidelines developed by mental-healthcare provider groups, in a process to be overseen by a special master. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero of the Northern District of California issued the rulings after a bench trial in a class action filed in 2014. The 9th Circuit stayed the reprocessing pending the outcome of this appeal by UBH, a UnitedHealth Group company. UBH argues that Spero failed to evaluate its guidelines under the proper abuse-of-discretion standard and that the reprocessing remedy is too broad. The case is David Wit et al. v. United Behavioral Health, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals No. 20-17363. For Wit et al.: Caroline Reynolds of Zuckerman Spaeder. For UBH: Miguel Estrada of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
5 p.m. (ET) – Michael Chang, CEO of Sompo Global Risk Solutions, will deliver a keynote address on the insurance industry’s “new normal” to open CLM 2021, the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance’s annual conference in Atlanta. The three-day event features plenary sessions on industry game-changers like artificial intelligence and “runaway verdicts” as well as more than 100 breakout sessions, including “Hot Topics Involving the Right to Independent Counsel”; “Leveling the Bad-Faith Playing Field”; “COVID-19 and Its Impact on Claims Against Professionals,” and more. For the full agenda, go to https://bit.ly/2VxFRYy
Thursday, August 12
9 a.m. – The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear viatical insurance investor Sterling Crum’s appeal from a ruling that one of his investments was void ab initio, as an illegal wager on human life, because the insured had obtained the policy with the “unilateral intent” to sell it to an investor later. Crum argues that voiding a policy based on the insured’s intent at the time of purchase represents an unprecedented and erroneous expansion of Georgia law, which bars stranger-originated life insurance policies (often called STOLIs), in which the beneficiary who arranges the purchase has no insurable interest in the insured’s life. The insured in this case had arranged for and purchased the policy on his own life, naming his estate as the beneficiary. He sold it to Crum a year later through a broker and duly filed a change of beneficiary form. He died six years after the transfer – well past the policy’s two-year contestability period, Crum argues. The case is Crum v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co., 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals No. 20-11280. For Crum: Scott Zweigel of Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs. For Jackson National: Michael Miller of Cozen O’Connor.
Saturday, August 14
1 p.m. (ET) – The National Association of Insurance Commissioners opens its Summer 2021 National Meeting, a four-day virtual and live event in Columbus, Ohio. The schedule includes a mix of regulator-only and public sessions, including several task-force reports and Q&A sessions. The meeting culminates on Tuesday with “Casualty Catastrophe Risk in a Time of Social Inflation,” a report by the NAIC Center for Insurance Policy and Research on the data, tools, and methods of assessing the potential impact of existing and emerging exposures on casualty insurers. For details, go to https://www.naic.org/meetings_events.htm
Know of an event that could be included in Week Ahead in Insurance Law? Contact Alexia Garamfalvi at alexia.garamfalvi@thomsonreuters.com
