For the holding company it's a victory halftone

Artemis and the California Insurance Department are returned back to back. They did appeal the judge's decision in Los Angeles on the damages awarded in the Executive Life case in 2006. The Federal Court of appeal in San Francisco was whether Monday it canceled the restitution of $ 241 million fine imposed on the holding company of François Pinault and it required the reopening of the trial phase devoted to the award of damages.

It is the last step in date from the California case Executive Life, in which Credit Lyonnais and the MAAF had purchased fraudulently, according to the American justice, an insurance company in bankruptcy. Acquired in 1991 by Altus, a then subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais, it had sold three years later to Artémis. Fraud, intended to conceal any link with the French Government to circumvent us legislation, was revealed in 1999. The Commissioner of insurance filed a complaint in the same year and the trial opened in February 2005. Crédit Lyonnais and the other members of the consortium concluded an agreement amicably for $ 600 million. Remained only in the running, Artémis has been recognized guilty of complicity in fraud by the popular jury.

For the holding company, it's a victory halftone. The judge of appeal of California found that there was place to organize a new component of the trial on the award of damages. Following the impasse of the jury on a point of the verdict in 2005, judge Howard Matz had in effect prohibited the charge to invoke the alternative scenario of an acquisition of Executive Life by the guarantee fund Nolhga (National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations), candidate for the resumption of the insurance company. This rationale was the key of the strategy of the charge in obtaining compensatory damages.

New procedure

In his judgment, Judge Jay Bybee therefore reversed the decision of the judge Matz, demanding that the two parties come before the Board and authorizing the charge to raise Nolhga. "This decision confirms that the judge erred by not permitting us to present to the jury the evidence of what would happened if the fraud orchestrated by the consortium of Crédit Lyonnais had been known at the time", said Monday night at the "Echos" Gary Fontana, the senior counsel of the Department of insurance. He says that 4 billion dollars in damages and interests are at stake.

James Clark, the Chief lawyer of ARTEMIS, stressed that the Department of insurance would have "a little evil" to plead his case. "They will have to demonstrate that Artemis, which didn't even exist when this fraud has been mounted, bears responsibility for the damage he has caused, if there is", he said.

Simultaneously, j. McKinney confirmed the decision of judge Matz set aside the verdict of the people's juror condemning Artémis a punitive fine of $ 700 million, or recognized him guilty of damage from the Department of insurance. According to the American jurisprudence, compensatory damages are the essential precondition for the grant of a punitive fine. The Court of appeal left to the discretion of the judge Matz decision to re-establish a restitution fine against Artémis at the end of the trial.