Garamendi

These consolidated appeals arise from judgment entered in seven underlying consolidated actions for declaratory relief.

The judgment determines that purchasers of “Municipal Bond Guaranteed Investment Contracts” (Muni-GICs) from Executive Life Insurance Company (ELIC) in 1986 have preferred class-5 claim priority as insurance “policyholders,” rather than class-6 “all other claims priority” in ELIC’s pending insolvency proceedings.

The primary issues raised are as follows: (1) whether Muni-GICs were insurance annuities under Insurance Code section 101 when they were issued in 1986; (2) whether enactment in 1988 of section 10541 retrospectively alters the status and claim priority of the 1986 Muni-GICs in the ELIC liquidation proceedings; (3) whether the liquidation claim priority of the subject Muni-GICs is determined as of their status when issued in 1986 or, rather, as of April 11,1991, when the order for conservation was entered; (4) whether the Muni-GICs sold in states other than California are exempt from any retroactive effect of section 10541 because their status as insurance annuities is controlled by the laws of the states where sold; (5) whether Muni-GICs are…