John Garamendi

A frustrated federal judge has decided that the best hope for ending the long battle over failed Executive Life Insurance Co. is to put the main antagonists in a room for two days and see if they can work things out. It's been three weeks since the jury in the state's lawsuit over the 1991 collapse of Executive Life produced a muddled set of verdicts for the last two defendants in the marathon case.

Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Thursday pressed ahead with his campaign to help homeowners who may face rejection when they seek to renew insurance policies after filing damage claims. Garamendi filed a new set of proposed regulations that would require insurers to provide detailed information to customers and state regulators about the accuracy of their claims histories and the circumstances that could lead to coverages not being renewed.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer gives a lot of speeches. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi keeps tabs on Democratic fundraisers. Treasurer Phil Angelides makes time for reporters from coast to coast. And Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante doesn't do much -- at least according to the daily calendars they keep.

Attorneys for French billionaire Francois Pinault renewed their efforts in court Thursday to show that Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi was aware that banking giant Credit Lyonnais was backing a group of French investors bidding for the assets of failed California insurer Executive Life Insurance Co. in 1991.

Efforts to prevent insurance companies from not renewing homeowners' policies after a claim has been filed will go forward despite a legal setback, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Wednesday. The Third Appellate District Court of Appeal on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that Garamendi didn't have the legal authority to issue regulations outlawing what the commissioner calls "use it and lose it" underwriting by insurers.

Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi testified Wednesday that he never would have sold the junk bond portfolio of failed California insurer Executive Life Insurance Co. to a French investor group if he had known they had signed "secret side agreements" that he claimed hid the true identity of the buyer. "If we had known about the agreements," said Garamendi, taking the stand in a civil suit in federal court in Los Angeles, "it would have been, 'Goodbye, go back to France. Get out of here.'

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Tuesday that he was investigating two big title insurers as part of a probe into alleged kickbacks paid to builders, lenders and Realtors in exchange for client referrals. Garamendi said Fidelity National Financial Inc. and LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. had been involved in complex arrangements that amounted to paying bribes for referrals while jacking up the cost of title insurance for home buyers.

Credit Lyonnais and the French government agreed Tuesday to pay $600 million to settle their part of a long-running legal battle over the 1991 collapse of Executive Life Insurance Co. The settlement of two consolidated lawsuits brought by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and a Bay Area company, Sierra National Insurance Holdings Inc., is expected to be endorsed today by a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles.

Thirteen years ago, then-California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi boasted that he couldn't think of "a better gift for policyholders" than his sale of Executive Life Insurance Co. to a group of French investors. The deal with banking giant Credit Lyonnais and MAAF Vie, a small Paris-based insurance company, ensured that Executive Life would be "rehabilitated" and that policyholders' investments were "secure," the commissioner told reporters in December 1991.

California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Tuesday that a settlement requiring UnumProvident Corp. to reopen 215,000 closed and denied disability insurance claims was a bad deal for policyholders in the state. Although at least 40 states have agreed to the deal with the nation's top disability insurer, Garamendi said he rejected it because "there are significant shortcomings." Garamendi said he was pursuing a separate deal on behalf of California policyholders.