INSURANCE LAW: Connecticut Supreme Court holds that no further administrative remedies existed to be exhausted prior to declaratory judgment action against the Connecticut Insurance Department

CONGRATULATIONS to Attorneys Andrew J. O’Keefe and Joseph M. Busher on a Connecticut Supreme Court win.

In this matter, the plaintiff insurance producers brought action against the Insurance Commissioner for declaratory and injunctive relief with regard to statements by the Insurance Department regarding the sale of life insurance policies to military personnel.  General statutes § 4-175 allows declaratory judgment actions against the Insurance Department where “ a provision of the general statutes, a regulation or a final decision, or its threatened application, interferes with or impairs, or threatens to interfere with or impair, the legal rights or privileges of the plaintiff….”

The Department contended that while no formal proceedings were pending, the existence of an investigation precluded the plaintiff form relying on the statute.  The Supreme Court disagrees, reversing a Superior Court dismissal.  “[T]he department’s issuance of second chance notices under § 4-182(c) did not commence an administrative proceeding that would give the plaintiffs access to an administrative remedy—and a formal contested case hearing had not yet been instituted in accordance with § 4–177—the plaintiffs had nothing further to exhaust at the time they brought this declaratory judgment action under § 4–175.”

Fin. Consulting, LLC v. Comm’r of Ins., 315 Conn. 196, 207 (December 30, 2014).