In several years of unprecedented challenges and changes, CMN has continued to provide excellent representation to its clients and get the results that make us a “Go To” law firm for the insurance and financial services industry.
Late 2021 saw two big wins for CMN. A successful trial in 2019 resulted in a verdict in favor of our life insurance client on a complex STOLI and rescission case. Not only did we secure a multi-million dollar fraud judgment against the rogue agent involved, we also obtained a verdict that allowed our client to retain the premiums it earned as an equitable remedy for the effort it took to unravel the STOLI scheme at issue. CMN also represented our client in the appeal, and in late 2021, the Second Circuit affirmed the trial court’s judgment in all respects.
Also in late 2021, CMN secured summary judgment in favor of our client in a complex antitrust case against multiple life insurers brought by investors in a hedge fund that promised lucrative returns on non-recourse premium financing and STOLI investing. The judgment in favor of our client on all claims against it followed years of intense motion practice and discovery and was a complete vindication for our client, which maintained from the start that the claims against it were untenable.
And CMN continues to bring wins for its clients in 2022. CMN recently obtained judgment for its client in an ERISA case where beneficiaries sought accidental death benefits after a participant died due to his use of illicit cocaine and fentanyl. The court agreed that the participant’s death was not “accidental” because a substantial risk of overdose and death accompanies the use of illicit narcotics, meaning any expectation the participant had of surviving his use of those drugs—separately or in combined form—was objectively unreasonable. Furthermore, even if the participant’s death had been an accident, the plan’s exclusion for losses caused by the voluntary use of one or more illicit narcotics meant the participant’s death was not covered.
