United States Department of the Treasury and Mitchell A. Levine, Assistant Commissioner v. George Fabe, Superintendent of Insurance of Ohio (508 U.S. 491)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 11, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 491 · 113 S. Ct. 2202
- Decided
- June 11, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. The federal priority statute, 31U. S. C. § 3713, accords first priority to the United States with respect to a bankrupt debtor’s obligations. An Ohio statute confers only fifth priority upon claims of the United States in proceedings to liquidate an insolvent insurance company. Ohio Rev. Code Arm. §3903.42 (1989). The federal priority statute preempts the inconsistent Ohio law unless the latter is exempt from pre-emption under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 59 Stat. 33, as amended, 15 U. S. C. § 1011 et seq. In order to resolve this ease, we must decide whether a state statute establishing the priority of creditors’ claims in a proceeding to liquidate an insolvent insurance company is a law enacted “for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance,” within the meaning of § 2(b) of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15U.S.C. § 1012(b). We hold that the Ohio priority statute escapes preemption to the extent that it protects policyholders. Accordingly, Ohio may effectively afford priority, over claims of the United States, to the insurance claims of policyholders and to the costs and expenses of administering the liquidation. But when Ohio attempts to rank other categories of claims above those pressed by the United States, it is not free from federal pre-emption under the McCarran-Ferguson Act. I The Ohio priority statute was…
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