Garamendi
Garamendi v. SDI Vendome S.A.
Opinion
Opinion
Matz, J.
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT LACHARRIERE’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
This matter is before the Court on Defendant Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere’s Motion for Summary Judgment. For the reasons that follow, Lacharriere’s Motion is GRANTED.
INTRODUCTION
This action is another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Executive Life Insurance Company (“ELIC” or “Executive Life”), a California insurance company that collapsed more than ten years ago. In 1995, the California Court of Appeal summarized ELIC’s dramatic fall as follows:
In re Executive Life Ins. Co., 32 Cal. App.4th 344, 355-56 , 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 453 (1995).
In April 1991, the California Insurance Commissioner (then and now, John Gar-amendi) stepped in, seized ELIC’s assets and placed the insolvent company in con-servatorship. Lacharriere’s Statement of Undisputed Facts and Conclusions of Law (“SUF”) 1A; Commissioner’s Statement of Genuine Issues of Material Fact (“SGI”) at 4-5 (Lacharriere’s ¶ A not listed among Commissioner’s disputed facts). See also Compl. ¶ 14. The Commissioner crafted a rehabilitation plan for Executive Life and, after a lengthy bidding process, authorized the transfer of ELIC’s junk bond portfolio to Altus…