Reardon Scanlon LLP Certified By the WBENC

Reardon Scanlon LLP is proud to announce that as of October 28, 2017, it has been certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the US.  

 We recognize the commitment to supplier diversity that is embraced by corporations and government agencies today, and we can add diversity to your supply chain.

Reardon Scanlon LLP offers national litigation and appellate experience and flexible fee structures.  We invest time up front to solve problems, avoid protracted litigation when possible, and strive to achieve the best results for our clients.

Reardon Scanlon LLP this year marked the five-year anniversary of its founding, coinciding with changes that the firm says will continue it stays ahead of changing legal landscape to meet client needs and challenges.            

Among those changes for this 21st century law firm: Reardon Scanlon is now joins the ranks of women-owned enterprises.  Managing Partner Kathy Scanlon announced the changes this week, as Reardon Scanlon restructured its ownership arrangements.“We are a 21st Century firm, and that means we continue to change with constantly changing times,” said Scanlon, who has been managing partner for several years.  “In fact, that’s a hallmark for firms like ours, that are client-focused first, and continuously looking for ways to leverage technology and new business models to better serve our clients.”The firms three co-founders – Scanlon, Jim Reardon, and Pete Vodola – also announced the changes inwith the firm’s web site, other technologies, and logo. 

“The web site is easier to read, and easier to navigate,” said partner Jim Reardon – who, like Kathy Scanlon and their third co-founder, Pete Vodola – spends time in both the firm’s Connecticut and New York offices.            

Reardon Scanlon LLP serves clients in insurance, financial services, and other businesses.  Reardon Scanlon’s attorneys have wide-ranging experience in representing clients in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, computer hardware and software, and other industries.  With experience in many fields of law, the firms partners represent clients – large and small – in litigation, regulatory, business, and other matters.  For more, contact Managing Partner Kathy Scanlon at Katherine.scanlon@reardonscanlon.com.

  An insurer properly terminated three life insurance policies for non-payment of premiums under policies that called for premiums to be payable “at” the company’s home office - but where the insured did not take reasonable steps to make sure payments arrived there - a federal court in New York ruled in an opinion that granted a summary judgment victory to Reardon Scanlon’s client.  

 Reardon Scanlon’s lawyers had argued that the “mail box rule” did not apply where the insured was aware that the payments had not been received by the insurer, and federal court agreed in its September 18 ruling in Zamora-Leon v. United of Omaha Life Insurance Company, Case 1:15-cv-09206-JMF (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 18, 2017). District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman concluded that plaintiff Jesus Zamora-Leon had his office assistant send the payments in question to United of Omaha Life Insurance Company (“United”), but that United did not receive them and told the assistant – but neither Zamora nor the assistant took “the necessary steps to cure the problem.”        
Zamora, said Judge Furman, argued that the policy terminations were invalid because the premiums were "'paid’ upon mailing.”  United, said the judge, relied on the language of the policies to contend that the premiums were not 'paid’ because they were not received” by United and, in the alternative, that Zamora cannot presume that receipt occurred “from the mere fact of mailing” because United “informed Zamora, through his assistant, that the Company had no record of receiving the payments.”  The Court, said Judge Furman, “agrees with United on both fronts.”

 Looking to the mail-box rule, “under any law that could apply, it is well established that ‘the legal effect of mailing an insurance premium is controlled by the intent of the parties” and that intent typically is “embodied in the written agreement between the parties – the insurance plan.”  By making the premiums payable “at” United’s Home Office, such “language makes sufficiently plain that receipt, rather than mailing, controls.”  In fact, said Judge Furman, “any other interpretation would render the words ‘at our Home Office’ in the policies superfluous.”

 For more information, please contact Reardon Scanlon Managing Partner Kathy Scanlon at Katherine.Scanlon@reardonscanlon.com.