Post by Logan on Feb 12, 2016 5:57:27 GMT -6
Attorney general might defend consumer-protection law after Bevin drops court appeal
Frankfort -- An “outraged” Attorney General Andy Beshear said Thursday he will try to defend a consumer-protection law challenged by the life insurance industry.
On Monday, Gov. Matt Bevin’s Department of Insurance dropped the state’s legal defense of the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act, which was being challenged by three insurance carriers owned by Kemper Corp. of St. Louis, Mo. Oral arguments in the case were scheduled for Friday at the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The law requires insurance companies to make “good faith efforts,” using public death records, to determine if policyholders have died so their benefits can be paid. Under former Gov. Steve Beshear — the attorney general’s father — the state argued that the law should apply to policies in effect when the law passed in 2012. The insurance companies sued, calling that a retroactive rewriting of their contract terms.
A Franklin Circuit Court judge sided with the state, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned that decision and backed the insurance companies. With Bevin’s unexpected legal retreat from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals’ ruling appears to be the final say in the case.
Read more here: www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article59862101.html
Frankfort -- An “outraged” Attorney General Andy Beshear said Thursday he will try to defend a consumer-protection law challenged by the life insurance industry.
On Monday, Gov. Matt Bevin’s Department of Insurance dropped the state’s legal defense of the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act, which was being challenged by three insurance carriers owned by Kemper Corp. of St. Louis, Mo. Oral arguments in the case were scheduled for Friday at the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The law requires insurance companies to make “good faith efforts,” using public death records, to determine if policyholders have died so their benefits can be paid. Under former Gov. Steve Beshear — the attorney general’s father — the state argued that the law should apply to policies in effect when the law passed in 2012. The insurance companies sued, calling that a retroactive rewriting of their contract terms.
A Franklin Circuit Court judge sided with the state, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned that decision and backed the insurance companies. With Bevin’s unexpected legal retreat from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals’ ruling appears to be the final say in the case.
Read more here: www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article59862101.html