WASH. FILES BRIEF SUPPORTING CALIF. HVIRA

The Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of California’s legally besieged 1999 Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief Act (HVIRA). Washington is one of several states with a similar law providing protection for the rights of Holocaust-era insurance policyholders. Under the HVIRA, any insurance company doing business in California must file with the Insurance Commissioner information about all insurance policies sold by it or its related companies to persons in Europe which were in effect between 1920 and 1945; the Commissioner is required to suspend the certificate of authority of any insurer that fails to provide this information. Insurance companies Gerling, Generali, Winterthur and the American Insurance Association asserted that insurance commissioners do not have the authority to require them to provide information about the business practices outside of the states they regulate.