Insurance

The Firm represents life insurers, annuity issuers, and property and casualty insurers in a wide range of commercial insurance matters. Our lawyers also have expertise in claims litigation and bad faith actions. And, the Firm represents insurance companies in coverage matters by providing timely, cogent opinions assessing coverage, offering counsel on effective strategies for resolving complex claims questions, and bringing and defending declaratory judgment actions.

Recent Successes

Prevailing in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, which awarded partial summary judgment to the Firm’s client, a national life insurance company, in an action brought to reinstate a lapsed life insurance policy;
Prevailing in the Superior Court of New Jersey (Passaic County) on a motion for partial summary judgment in a matter of first impression, in which the Court declared that the Firm’s client, a national insurer, had no duty to cover the plaintiff-insured’s claim for costs associated with a sub-slab vapor mitigation system installed to remove harmful vapors from a warehouse building located on an environmental remediation site;
Prevailing in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County) on a motion to dismiss claims brought against the Firm’s client, a national life insurance company, by the purchaser of a life policy on the secondary market, alleging fraud and seeking a declaratory judgment that the policy was valid and that a death benefit would be paid out on it when the insured died;
Defeating a motion to dismiss counterclaims brought on behalf of the Firm’s client, a major life insurance company, in the Supreme Court of New York (Kings County), on the strength of a novel legal theory never before addressed by New York state courts;

Favorably resolving environmental coverage action brought against the Firm’s client, a national insurer, regarding contaminated sites in five states, by way of coverage-in-place agreement that included different allocation methods for each state;
Securing voluntary dismissal of environmental coverage claims brought in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against the Firm’s client, a global insurer, based on an argument that a Carter Wallace allocation of alleged damages would never reach the client’s policy limits;
Securing a voluntary discontinuance of breach of fiduciary duty claims brought in the Supreme Court of New York (Westchester County) against one of the Firm’s life insurance clients in connection with disbursements made under multiple life insurance policies valued in excess of $4 million;
Winning in the Supreme Court of New York (Suffolk County) a dismissal of claims that our client, a national life insurance company, wrongfully failed to pay death benefits on a life insurance policy;
Prevailing in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County) on a motion to dismiss a nursing and home attendant firm’s complaint against our client, a national insurer, and more than a dozen cross-claims brought by the estate of the client’s insured, alleging, inter alia, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and wrongful death;
Prevailing on motion for summary judgment in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of our clients, leading insurers, against claims for death benefits allegedly owed under a group life insurance policy;
Prevailing before the Superior Court of New Jersey (Burlington County) on motion to dismiss an action alleging that our client, the issuer of a variable annuity, breached its annuity contract with plaintiff, was negligent, and breached its fiduciary duties, in connection with alleged unauthorized withdrawals from plaintiff’s annuity account;
Securing a voluntary dismissal with prejudice, in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, of third-party coverage claims brought against the Firm’s client, a national insurer;
Prevailing on a motion for summary judgment in the Supreme Court of New York (Kings County) on behalf of the Firm’s client, the issuer of a variable annuity, against claims that the client breached its annuity contract with plaintiff by allegedly failing to make contributions to plaintiff’s 403(b) retirement plan;
Prevailing in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on a motion for summary judgment on behalf of the Firm’s client, a national life insurance company, against claims by its former agent for commissions and other costs allegedly owed arising from its sale of life insurance policies later declared void ab initio following the client’s discovery of material misrepresentations in the policy applications;
Prevailing in the Supreme Court of New York (Nassau County), on a motion for partial summary judgment dismissing claims brought against the Firm’s client, a national life insurance company, for death benefits under a lapsed life insurance policy;
Prevailing in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County) on a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint alleging that the Firm’s client, a national insurer, breached the terms of a life insurance policy, violated federal tax laws, engaged in fraud, and was negligent;
Securing summary judgment (including costs and attorneys’ fees) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for the Firm’s client, a national life insurer, on claims seeking the return of commissions and other costs owed by its former agent;
Successfully resolving a declaratory judgment action brought by the Firm’s client, a national insurer, in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County), for judgment declaring that it lawfully denied life insurance death benefits;
Obtaining summary judgment in the Superior Court of New Jersey (Ocean County) dismissing fraud, consumer fraud, contract, and civil conspiracy claims against the Firm’s client, a national life insurance company, alleging that plaintiffs were wrongfully induced to participate in a complex wealth accumulation and asset protection plan allegedly marketed as combining the benefits of qualified and non-qualified retirement plans and compounded tax-deferred growth;
Prevailing on a motion for summary judgment brought in the Supreme Court of New York (New York County), dismissing claims brought against a national insurer by its former servicing agent in Latin America, seeking commissions allegedly owed under the parties’ agency agreement;
Securing voluntary dismissal with prejudice of an action brought in the Supreme Court of New York (Bronx County) alleging that the Firm’s client, a national life insurer, breached the terms of plaintiff’s insurance policy and violated various provisions of New York’s Insurance Law;
Prevailing on a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York based on the abstention doctrine, in favor of our client’s prior-filed action to rescind a STOLI policy;
Prevailing on a motion to dismiss claims brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York based on a final order and judgment approving a nationwide class action settlement;
Obtaining voluntary agreements to rescind numerous insurance policies based on misrepresentations in policy applications;
Prevailing before the Supreme Court of New York (New York County) on a motion to dismiss a Trust’s action seeking judgment declaring its rights under multiple STOLI policies.