News Flash Archives

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.

Chittenden, Murday & Novotny LLC proudly announces that Craig M. Bargher has been named a Member of the Firm effective January 2021.  Craig’s practice is focused on representing the Firm’s clients in a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal courts, with extensive experience handling ERISA and individual life and disability litigation, as well as general commercial litigation.

CMN trial lawyers Elizabeth Doolin, Julie Wall, and Kaitlyn Luther won a decisive victory in the Eastern District of New York following a bench trial before Magistrate Judge Sanket Bulsara. At issue was a $10 million life insurance policy procured pursuant to a fraudulent investment scheme and through multiple misrepresentations concerning the applicant’s finances, other insurance, and premium financing. The policy investors brought a breach of contract claim for the $10 million death benefit proceeds, and the insurer counterclaimed for rescission and fraud against the investors and the writing agent. After a four-day bench trial in the spring of 2019, Judge Bulsara issued his findings of fact and conclusions of law on April 17, 2020, finding the policy rescinded as a result of the insured’s material misrepresentations, allowing the insurer to equitably retain all premiums paid due to the fraud involved in the policy’s procurement, and holding that the writing agent was liable for fraud. CMN’s lawyers are always prepared to go the distance for their clients, and were pleased to bring home a win this spring.

After successfully moving to decertify the class in a lawsuit alleging the Firm’s health insurer client violated the TCPA by sending faxes to the insurer’s contracted agents without the specific opt-out notice required by FCC regulations, CMN lawyers have now defeated the class plaintiff’s challenge on appeal. Previously, in related litigation before the FCC, CMN secured a waiver of the regulation for the faxes in question.  On December 3, 2018, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion affirming the class decertification holding that in light of the waiver, the evidence CMN presented showing putative class members’ consent to receive the faxes raised individual issues that precluded class treatment of their claims.  The Opinion is available on the link below.

Related Documents
Opinion