As unique as the past term of the New York Court of Appeals was—taking place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led the court to eliminate oral arguments in March, April and May, and to hear oral arguments in June via videoconferencing—there were some important similarities to prior terms.

Continuing its trend, the court issued decisions in a wide variety of insurance cases; three of the court's four significant insurance rulings were unanimous; and two of those four reached the court by certification from federal circuit courts (as did an increasing number of other non-insurance cases). Moreover, the observation I made two years ago in this column—that there does not yet seem to be a consistent lineup of judges on the carrier or the policyholder side—still holds true.