Pastoria

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Jon and Susan Pastoría sued Nationwide Insurance and CalFarm Insurance Company for unfair competition, fraud, and negligent failure to disclose imminent material changes in a health insurance policy. Plaintiffs contend that according to Insurance Code sections 330, 331, 332, 334, and 361, defendants had a duty to notify them about impending changes in their insurance policy before the plaintiffs purchased it. The trial court dismissed the case after it sustained defendants’ demurrer to the complaint with leave to amend, but the plaintiffs declined to amend their complaint. As we shall explain, we conclude the demurrer should have been overruled. We therefore reverse the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons who purchased “California Farm Bureau Members’ Primary—45 Plan N” health insurance policies from defendants between August 1, 2001, and approximately November 30, 2001. The predicate of the claim is that the plaintiff and members of the class were not told of “impending material premium increases and benefit reductions under the Policies” before the policies “went into…