Legal Seminar Planning Begins
Planning has begun for NOLHGA's 20th Annual Legal Seminar, which will be held on July 26 and 27, 2012, at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston. An MPC meeting is scheduled for July 24 and 25.
The Legal Seminar Planning Committee met twice by teleconference in February to begin developing an agenda for the seminar. This year's Planning Committee is made up of the following individuals: Committee Chair Charles Gullickson (South Dakota), Jack Falkenbach (Delaware), Joel Glover (Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons), Catherine Masters (Schiff Hardin), Van Mayhall III (Louisiana), Tad Rhodes (Oklahoma), Charlie Richardson (Faegre Baker Daniels), and Margaret Sperry (Rhode Island).
NOLHGA has secured a room rate for this meeting of $219/night plus tax at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Reservations can be made by contacting the hotel at 800.441.1414 and requesting the NOLHGA rate. A Web page for the meeting should be live in the next few weeks. Please contact Meg Melusen at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Staff Contact - American Chambers Life Insurance Company (Ohio)Third Early Access Distribution Made
On February 1, 2012, the Ohio Liquidation Court approved the liquidator's motion to make a third early access distribution to the guaranty associations (the first was made in December 2009 in the amount of $12.8 million, and the second was made in June 2011 in the amount of $9.8 million). The distribution is based on the guaranty associations' policyholder-level claims, as the administrative expenses have been paid in full. Pursuant to the court's order, NOLHGA received $1.5 million from the American Chambers estate this week and will distribute those funds to the affected guaranty associations according to their proportional share. Any questions can be directed to Meg Melusen at 703.787.4130 or [email protected].
Task Force Chair - Chuck Gullickson; Staff Contact - Executive Life Insurance Company (California)Artemis's Motion for Sanctions Denied & Aurora Defeasance Calculations Distributed
On February 29, 2012, the California federal district court denied Artemis's motion for sanctions, finding there was "no justification for ending this litigation after it has gone on so long and through so many phases." In its motion, defendant Artemis sought to have the litigation dismissed in its entirety as a sanction for the Commissioner's recent production of 40,000 documents in the fall of 2011, given that discovery closed several years ago and the trial took place in 2005.
The court's decision was based, among other things, on its finding that the vast majority of recently produced documents were duplicates of previously produced documents, and that Artemis had failed to demonstrate any significant adverse impact on the outcome of the litigation. The court noted, although Artemis identified certain documents that had not been previously produced, "Those documents were not...so critical as to justify termination of the action for their non-production."
In other ELIC news, on February 29, 2012, Navigant distributed Aurora's defeasance calculations to the ELIC participating guaranty associations (PGAs). The calculations have not been reviewed, and further work will be performed to verify their accuracy. Under the Enhancement Agreement, PGAs contemplating the possibility of defeasance in 2012 have until the 150th day after the preceding December 31 (i.e., May 29, 2012) to make a defeasance payment if they decide to do so. Further reports and analysis will be distributed in the near future.
Task Force Chair - Art Dummer; Staff Contact - Bill O'Sullivan