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enterprise with United States General Agency (“USGA”) and American Funding
Services, Inc. (“AFSI”), and was placed in receivership. A co‐owner of ANA sued
the commissioner of insurance, as liquidator, for mismanagement of the
receivership estate based on the liquidator’s conduct with respect to the sale of
securities owned by USGA. Overruling the lower appellate court’s reasoning
that a finding of a single business enterprise (“SBE”) makes the liquidator a
fiduciary to the co‐owner of ANA, as if she were an owner of the entire SBE, the
state supreme court held that an SBE makes the liquidator owner of all of the
SBE’s assets, but that the owners of the individual entities of the SBE remain the
same. Therefore, the co‐owner of ANA did not have standing to bring an action
against the liquidator of USGA.
Wooley v. Lucksinger, 961 So. 2d 1228 (La. Ct. App. 2007). Owner of an insolvent
health plan filed a third‐party claim against the Department of Insurance in the
same lawsuit where the Commissioner of Insurance, as liquidator of the same
insolvent health plan, was pursuing causes of action against the owner for
corporate mismanagement and accounting negligence. The owner sought
indemnity, contribution, and governmental tort damages based on the
Department’s alleged negligent enforcement of rules and regulations thereby
allowing the health plan to fall deeper into insolvency. The owner also sought
damages from the Department on the basis of detrimental reliance. The court
of appeals held that, as a matter of law, the Department’s executing and
applying its statutory functions are not promises for the purposes of a Louisiana
statutory detrimental reliance claim or for public contract purposes. Therefore,
the owner’s claim for detrimental reliance on this basis is legally nonexistent.
The owner’s remaining third‐party demands of the Department could not be
sustained because, under Louisiana law, a third‐party plaintiff must allege and
prove that a third‐party defendant is liable to the plaintiff for all or part of the
damage. The joint and divisible nature of negligence under the Louisiana
statutes makes no damage award possible to the owner as co‐obligor.
Therefore, because the Department is not liable to the owner for all or part of
the demand, the owner also has no cause of action for third‐party demands as a
matter of law.
Missouri Avidan v. Transit Cas. Co., 20 S.W.3d 521 (2000). A former employee of a
receivership filed suit against the receivership for breach of contract, and
against both the receivership and the receiver for deprivation of his civil rights
under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The lower court dismissed the claim against the receiver
based on statutory immunity. On appeal, however, the Supreme Court of
Missouri reversed and remanded, holding that the immunity provided to a
deputy receiver for an insurance receivership initiated prior to August 28, 1991, is
conditioned upon actions taken in “good faith” and it was error to dismiss a
petition that had alleged the deputy receiver's actions were “willful, wanton
and malicious.”
Lucas v. Manufacturing Lumberman's Underwriters, 349 Mo. 835, 163 S.W.2d
750 (1942). The new Missouri insurance commissioner filed charges against the
prior insurance commissioner and secured a judgment of $85,264.44. In
reversing this award, the Missouri Supreme Court noted that the Missouri
commissioner had the authority during rehabilitation to preserve the status
quo while awaiting the decision of various questions of jurisdiction pending
before the state and federal courts concerning the reciprocal exchange, and
this included the expending of funds for the purpose of reinsuring and
maintaining as much as possible the status quo of the exchange. The
insurance commissioner is vested with much discretion in conducting and