On December 9th, a four-judge panel in the Appellate Court in New York's Second Department unanimously ruled that the MLMIC Buyout Proceeds from the sale and demutualization of the State's largest medical malpractice insurer, the Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company ("MLMIC"), belong to the physician-policyholder and not to his/her employer, even if such employer paid the malpractice premiums and/or acted as the Policy Administrator.

The Second Department's unanimous decision in Maple Medical v. Joseph Scott, 2020 WL 7233649, is consistent with the unanimous conclusions reached by the Appellate Divisions in both the Third and Fourth Departments in recent months. The Appellate Court in Maple Medical held as follows:

"The plain language of Insurance Law Section 7307, [MLMIC's] plan of conversion, and the NYS Department of Financial Services' decision make clear that the policyholder is entitled to the consideration paid in connection with the MLMIC demutualization."