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WHERE THE EMPLOYER OF A PHYSICIAN HAS PAID THE PREMIUMS FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE AND THE INSURANCE COMPANY DEMUTUALIZES, ABSENT AN AGREEMENT TO THE CONTRARY, THE PROCEEDS GO TO THE PHYSICIAN, NOT THE EMPLOYER (FIRST DEPT). ​

The First Department, reversing Supreme Court based on a recent Court of Appeals ruling, determined the proceeds from the demutualization of a medical malpractice insurer belong to the physician, not to the physician’s employer (the plaintiff here):

The Court of Appeals has recently held that “when an employer pays premiums to a mutual insurance company to obtain a policy of which its employee is the policyholder, and the insurance company demutualizes, absent contrary terms in the contract of employment, insurance policy, or separate agreement, the policyholder is entitled to the proceeds from the demutualization” … .

… [D]efendant is entitled to the demutualization proceeds. There is no evidence of any contrary terms in the contract of employment, insurance policy, or separate agreement. In fact, defendant’s employment agreement provides that “[t]he Employer agrees that it will pay or reimburse the Employee for that portion of such insurance premiums that are attributable to the period coinciding with the Term [of employment].” Plaintiff … acknowledged … that it paid the insurance premiums “as a fringe benefit to the Physician employee.” … .

It is irrelevant that plaintiff, who is not listed as the policy administrator in the policy, paid the policy premiums during the relevant period and acted as the policy administrator … . Mid-Manhattan Physician Servs., P.C. v Dworkin, 2022 NY Slip Op 04523, First Dept 7-12-22

​Similar issues and result in Sullivan v Northwell Health, Inc., 2022 NY Slip Op 04525, First Dept 7-12-22

​Practice Point: Where the employer of a physician has paid the premiums for medical malpractice insurance and the insurance company demutualizes, absent an agreement to the contrary, the proceeds go to the physician, not the employer.

 

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