1999 0914 – GOV (House-Report) – Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999 – 47p

1999 0914 – GOV (House-Report) – Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999 – 47p

• 1999 0914 – GOV (House-Report) – Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999  —  [BonkNote]  —  47p
  • The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 1875) to amend title 28, United States Code, to allow the application of the principles of Federal diversity jurisdiction to interstate class actions, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill as amended do pass.

• 39 – Equitable Life Assurance Company, an Iowa corporation, agreed to a $20 million settlement of two class-action lawsuits involving 130,000 persons filed in Pennsylvania and Arizona State courts. The class action alleged that Equitable misled consumers, in violation of State insurance fraud law, when trying to sell ”vanishing premium” life insurance policies in the 1980s. Equitable sold the policies when interest rates were high, informing potential customers that after a few years, once the interest generated by their premiums was sufficiently high, their premium obligations would be terminated. However, when interest rates dropped, customers ended up having to continue to pay the premium in full.⁴⁹
  • ⁴⁹ See David Elbert, ”Lawsuits to Cost Equitable $20 Mill,” Des Moines Register, July 19, 1997 at 12 and ”Cost of Settling Lawsuits Pulls Equitable Earnings Down,” Des Moines Register, August 6, 1997 at 10.