Litigation

Second Circuit Court of Appeals Tells Cash Now Pusher Where to Shove Their Ten Gallon Hat

By John Darer

An attempt by Rapid Settlements Ltd to "circumvent" the New York Structured Settlement Protection Act by arguing that the Full Faith and Credit Clause in Article IV of the United States Constitution required the United States District Court for the Western District of New York: "to give preclusive effect to a Texas state court judgment confirming the arbitration award" was rejected by the Second Circuit. Court of Appeals . The affirmation by the 3 judge panel was unanimous and hit on 3 major points:

• Declaring "void and unenforceable" a purported assignment to Rapid of structured settlement payment rights;
• Declaring "void and unenforceable" an arbitration award purporting to effectuate the assignment;
• Enjoined Rapid Settlements from taking any further legal action "in any forum" to recover the structured settlement annuity payments.

The case was captioned  "Pacific Life Insurance Company v. Rapid Settlements, Ltd." and involved a New York resident named Joyce Allen, a structured structured settlement recipient who attempted to transfer payment rights through Rapid Settlements.

I guess in this case a more appropriate name for that Texas outfit would be "Giant Tortoise settlements".

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).