DocketNumber: No. 07-4145-CV
Filed Date: 2/10/2009
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
Defendant-appellant Rapid Settlements, Ltd. (“Rapid Settlements”) appeals from a September 5, 2007 order of the District Court granting summary judgment to plaintiff-appellees, Pacific Life Insurance Company and Confederation Life Insurance and Annuity Company, and dismissing as moot defendant’s motion to dismiss. See Pacific Life Ins. Co. v. Rapid Settlements, Ltd., 2007 WL 2530098, at *1 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 5, 2007). Specifically, the District Court (1) declared void and unenforceable the purported assignment of defendant Joyce Allen (“Allen”) to Rapid Settlements annuity payments she was entitled to receive pursuant to a structured settlement agreement, (2) declared void and unenforceable an arbitration award purporting to effectuate the assignment, and (3) enjoined Rapid Settlements from taking further action in any forum to recover the annuity payments due to Allen.
On appeal, Rapid Settlements contends that the District Court erred in granting summary judgment to plaintiffs because (a) Allen’s annuity payments were properly assigned to Rapid Settlements, notwithstanding (i) the anti-assignment language in Allen’s structured settlement agreement and (ii) the absence of a court order approving the assignment in accordance with the New York Structured Settlement Protection Act,
For substantially the reasons stated by the District Court in its order of September 5, 2007, we conclude that Rapid Settlements’s claims are without merit and that the Court did not err in granting summary judgment to plaintiffs or in enjoining defendant. The September 5, 2007 order of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
. It is undisputed that at the time of purported agreement at issue Allen was a resident of New York and that, accordingly, the New York Settlement Protection Act was applicable.