INSURANCE REGULATION WHICH PROHIBITS TITLE INSURERS FROM PROVIDING VALUABLE INDUCEMENTS TO ATTRACT TITLE INSURANCE BUSINESS IS NOT UNCONSTITUTIONALLY VAGUE, SUPREME COURT REVERSED (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined Insurance Regulation 208 (11 NYCRR part 228), which prohibits title insurers from providing valuable inducements to attract title insurance business, is not unconstitutionally vague:
Petitioners contend that section 228.2(c) is unconstitutionally vague in setting forth a non-exhaustive list of activities that are “permissible, provided[,]” among other things, that they are “reasonable and customary, and not lavish or excessive” … . The court should have rejected this vagueness challenge, since section 228.2(c) “is sufficiently definite to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden,” and “the enactment provides officials with clear standards for enforcement so as to avoid resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis” … . … [T}he words “lavish” and “excessive,” standing in clear contrast with the word “reasonable,” provide adequate notice of the type of behavior that is proscribed. The word “customary” also sets forth a standard that can be understood by an ordinary person … . …
The provisions of section 228.2(c) generally permitting advertising, charitable contributions, and political contributions are consistent with the right to free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, § 8 of the New York Constitution. … The content-neutral provisions at issue in this case are narrowly tailored to the substantial government interest of clarifying a statute intended to “prevent consumers from being required to subsidize unscrupulous exchanges of valuable things for real estate professionals” … , and that interest is “unrelated to the suppression of free expression” … . Matter of New York State Land Tit. Assn., Inc. v New York State Dept. of Fin. Servs., 2019 NY Slip Op 09366, First Dept 12-26-19