High Court Refuses to Review Applied Underwriters’ Appeal in Conservatorship Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Applied Underwriters Inc. (AUI)’s petition to review its appeal in its lawsuit accusing California insurance regulators of unlawfully planning to shut down its former affiliate, California Insurance Co. (CIC), as part of a “vendetta” involving AUI’s “EquityComp” workers’ compensation program.

In their Nov. 30 petition for certiorari, AUI and its affiliates argued that the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ “gravamen” test for deciding the applicability of the prior exclusive jurisdiction doctrine conflicts with Supreme Court precedent “and would replace easily applied jurisdictional rules with confusion and uncertainty.”

The high court …