The Firm secured today a complete dismissal on behalf of its client, a national life insurance company, in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County) (Kornreich, J.). Plaintiff brought claims against the Firm’s client in connection with a life insurance policy that he purchased on the secondary market, claiming that (i) he was defrauded into believing the life insurance policy was governed by New York law, (ii) he was entitled to a declaratory judgment that the policy was valid and the death benefit would be paid out when the insured died, and (iii) the Firm’s client should be ordered to disclose precisely how it was calculating premiums on the policy. After a lengthy hearing on the motion, the Court dismissed all of plaintiff’s claims with prejudice, finding that plaintiff’s fraud claim was barred by the applicable statute of limitations, and holding that plaintiff failed to state a claim for declaratory judgment that the policy was valid where there was no judiciable controversy with respect to that issue—the insured was still alive, no claim had been made, and, as the Court acknowledged was standard procedure in the insurance industry in these circumstances, the Firm’s client had not yet made a determination as to the validity of the policy. Finally, the Court held that plaintiff was not entitled to what amounted to mandatory injunctive relief regarding the calculation of premiums where plaintiff never even alleged that he was being overcharged.
