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KRAMER v. PHOENIX LIFE INS.

No. 176.

15 N.Y.3d 539 (2010)

ALICE KRAMER, Respondent, v. PHOENIX LIFE INSURANCE Co. et al., Defendants. LIFEMARK S.A., Intervenor-Appellant. (And Third-Party Actions.)

Court of Appeals of New York.

Decided November 17, 2010.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Mayer Brown LLP ( John J. Tharp, Jr. , of the Illinois bar, admitted pro hac vice, Lawrence R. Hamilton , Katherine E. Agonis , Robert T. Howell and J. Bishop Grewell of counsel) and Mayer Brown LLP, New York City ( Hector Gonzalez of counsel), for intervenor-appellant.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP, New York City ( Patrick J. Feeley , Christopher G. Karagheuzoff , Joshua Colangelo-Bryan and Stephen M. Raab of counsel), for Phoenix Life Insurance Company, defendant.

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP ( Michael J. Miller , of the Pennsylvania bar, admitted pro hac vice, Stephen C. Baker , of the Pennsylvania bar, admitted pro hac vice, Charles J. Vinicombe , of the Pennsylvania bar, admitted pro hac vice, and Katherine L. Villanueva of counsel) for Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York, defendant.

Friedman & Wittenstein, New York City ( Andrew A. Wittenstein , Stuart I. Friedman and Rajeev E. Ananda of counsel), for Alice Kramer, respondent.

Hanley Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fisher & Hayes, LLP, New York City ( Andrea B. Bierstein of counsel), Susman Godfrey LLP ( Rebecca S. Tinio and Arun S. Subramanian of counsel) and Fein & Jakab ( Peter Jakab of counsel) for Jonathan S. Berck and another, respondents.

Phillips Lytle LLP, New York City ( Edward S. Bloomberg and Patricia A. Mancabelli of counsel), for T.D. Bank, N.A., respondent.

Rosenfeld & Kaplan, LLP, New York City ( Tab K. Rosenfeld and Steven M. Kaplan of counsel), for intervenor-respondents.

Proskauer Rose LLP, New York City ( John E. Failla , William C. Komaroff and Nathan R. Lander of counsel), for Institutional Life Markets Association, amicus curiae.

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, Houston, Texas ( J. Brett Busby of counsel), and Edison, McDowell & Hetherington, LLP ( David T. McDowell of counsel) for American Council of Life Insurers and another, amici curiae.

Arent Fox LLP, New York City ( Julius A. Rousseau, III , and Eric A. Biderman of counsel), for Life Insurance Settlement Association, amicus curiae.

Chief Judge LIPPMAN and Judges GRAFFEO, READ and JONES concur with Judge CIPARICK; Judge SMITH dissents in a separate opinion in which Judge PIGOTT concurs.

OPINION OF THE COURT

CIPARICK, J.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has certified the following question for our consideration:

"Does New York Insurance Law §§ 3205 (b)(1) and (b)(2) prohibit an insured from procuring a policy on his own life and immediately transferring the policy to a person without an insurable interest in the insured's life, if the insured did not ever intend to provide insurance protection...

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