An Insurer’s Failure to Investigate an Accident and Decline Coverage Based Upon a Policy Exclusion Renders the Subsequent Disclaimer of a Claim Untimely as a Matter of Law The New York legislature and courts impose strict requirements on insurance companies to  “timely disclaim” coverage under a liability policy. New York Insurance Law § 3420(d) requires that insurers disclaim coverage under a liability policy issued or delivered in New York “as soon as is reasonably possible.”…

As previously discussed here, Congress recently enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “Act”) to amend the Bank Secrecy Act by requiring businesses to file information about their beneficial ownership. Pursuant to the Act, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has until January 1, 2022 to adopt regulations and establish a private national database for information collected under the Act. On April 5, 2021, FinCEN took one of the first steps in…

Property lines in New York and especially in New York City are usually very close together – sometimes in what are referred to as “lot line” configurations (properties with building that abut each other with no space between them).  Often times when a property owner seeks to make improvements or repairs to their property, for development purposes or just to comply with safety rules – such as “Local Law 11” in New York City, relating…

As we discussed in an article a couple of months ago, LIBOR (the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate), an interest rate benchmark that is used as a reference rate for a wide range of financial transactions, will cease to be published in the near future. A major concern in the capital market and securitization industries has been addressing the  difficult problem of how to fairly compensate investors in when a contracted LIBOR rate ceases to be…

The question of which party to a contract writes the first draft is generally understood among attorneys, but can sometimes be a mystery to clients. This article will present a brief overview of which side usually drafts, the reasons for doing so, the exceptions to the rule, and some discussion about the consequences for not following tradition. Who Drafts? The general rule is that the party that most needs to be protected in a transaction…

Over the last several years, there has been growing concern within the financial and trade regulatory communities about the use of shell companies to evade anti-money laundering laws, economic sanctions, and other laws.  Congress has found that malign actors have “exploited State formation procedures to conceal their identities” when forming these companies in the United States, in turn using the entities to “commit crimes affecting interstate and international commerce.” In response to this concern, Congress…

On December 28, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 (the “Act”), which, among other things, implements certain requirements and restrictions on residential foreclosures in New York.  The Act does not apply to certain commercial foreclosures or to vacant and abandoned properties that were listed on the statewide vacant and abandoned property electronic registry before March 7, 2020, and remain on the registry.…