United States Fourth Circuit

In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/01/2009
• Decided 02/08/2010
• Published 02/08/2010

Judges

• Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, and WILKINSON and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:Kenneth W. Starr, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, Los Angeles, California, for Appellants. Richard Harpootlian, Richard A. Harpootlian, PA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:Susan E. Engel, Elizabeth M. Locke, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, Washington, DC; J. Calhoun Watson, Jr., Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, Columbia, South Carolina; C. Allen Foster, Kevin E. Stern, Robert P. Charrow, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Graham L. Newman, Richard A. Harpootlian, PA, Columbia, South Carolina; Tobias G. Ward, Jr., Todd & Ward PC, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. Jeffrey A. Jacobs, South Carolina Department of Insurance, Columbia, South Carolina, for South Carolina Department of Insurance, Amicus Supporting Appellants. Professor Ronald D. Rotunda, Chapman University School of Law, Orange, California, for Ronald Daniel Rotunda, Amicus Supporting Appellants.