Summary
holding "filed rate" doctrine barred claim alleging that insurers submitted false and misleading information to superintendent of insurance, thus fraudulently obtaining the filed rate
Summary of this case from Coll v. First American Title InsuranceOpinion
April 4, 1996
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Herman Cahn, J.).
Plaintiff brings this action, on his own behalf and on behalf of a putative class of similarly situated high risk Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield subscribers, alleging that defendants submitted false and misleading documentation to the Superintendent of Insurance, giving rise to a filed rate which was fraudulently obtained. However, we agree with the ruling of the IAS Court that the filed rate doctrine bars these claims. The filed rate doctrine prevents challenges to rates established by regulatory agencies, here the New York State Insurance Department, except by CPLR article 78 review, in order to ensure that rates charged are stable and non-discriminatory, bearing in mind that the regulatory agencies presumably are most familiar with the workings of the regulated industry and are in the best position, due to experience and investigative capacity, to establish the proper rates. The doctrine prevents the courts from entering into the rate determining process, and we agree that there is no exception from the filed rate doctrine based on allegations of fraud ( see, Wegoland Ltd. v. NYNEX Corp., 27 F.3d 17). We discern no reason to depart from this rule herein.
We have considered plaintiff's remaining claims and find them to be without merit.
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Rosenberger, Wallach, Kupferman and Williams, JJ.