Opinion ID: 1265400
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cartwright Act.

Text: The Court of Appeal reasoned that the UIPA was enacted pursuant to the authority of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 United States Code sections 1011-1015, in order to displace federal law which might otherwise have governed insurance trade practices, displacing the law of any state which did not generally proscribe the same industry conduct. [3] In so doing the Legislature did not intend to shield the industry from otherwise applicable state law. The intent to preserve existing rights and remedies for unlawful business practices in the insurance industry was clear, as the Legislature had expressly provided in the UIPA, in section 790.09, that [n]o order to cease and desist under [the UIPA] directed to any person or subsequent administrative or judicial proceedings to enforce the same shall in any way relieve or absolve such person from any administrative action against the license or certificate of such person, civil liability or criminal penalty under the laws of this State arising out of the methods, acts or practices found unfair or deceptive. The original UIPA bill did not contain this stipulation, and instead preserved only preexisting powers of the commissioner to enforce penalties, fines or forfeitures (Assem. Bill No. 1530 (1959 Reg. Sess.) § 1; see now § 790.08), [4] but from the first amended version of the bill until its passage, the section preserving existing remedies had been included. (Assem. Amend. to Assem. Bill No. 1530 (1959 Reg. Sess.) Apr. 8, 1959; Assem. Amend. to Assem. Bill No. 1530 (1959 Reg. Sess.) May 6, 1959; Sen. Amend. to Assem. Bill No. 1530 (1959 Reg. Sess.) June 11, 1959; Stats. 1959, ch. 1737, § 1, p. 4191.) It is probable that the inclusion of section 790.09 reflected the understanding of the Legislature that adoption of the UIPA would make no change in existing law. The Legislative Analyst stated in an analysis of the UIPA bill that it makes no substantive change in existing law. (Ops. Legis. Analyst, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 1530 (May 20, 1959) p. 1.) Moreover, the Court of Appeal observed, the Legislature had included specific provisions exempting specified classes of insurance from other laws. (E.g., §§ 795.7 [senior citizens health insurance], 1860.1 [casualty insurance rates], 11758 [workers' compensation], 12414.26 [title insurance].) Had the UIPA created a general exemption of insurance from the Cartwright Act and other laws, none of these provisions would have been necessary. Since the Legislature thereby demonstrated that it was aware of the need to create an exemption, and did not do so for other classes of insurance, the UIPA did not displace existing rights and remedies for unlawful business practices in the insurance industry, among them the Cartwright Act. Finding such displacement would necessarily be to find a pro tanto repeal of the Cartwright Act notwithstanding the rule that such repeals are disfavored and will be recognized only when the circumstances reflect a clear legislative intent to do so. (See Roberts v. City of Palmdale (1993) 5 Cal.4th 363, 379 [20 Cal. Rptr.2d 330, 853 P.2d 496]; Kennedy Wholesale, Inc. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1991) 53 Cal.3d 245, 249 [279 Cal. Rptr. 325, 806 P.2d 1360]; Western Oil & Gas Assn. v. Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control Dist. (1989) 49 Cal.3d 408, 419-420 [261 Cal. Rptr. 384, 777 P.2d 157]; Hays v. Wood (1979) 25 Cal.3d 772, 784 [160 Cal. Rptr. 102, 603 P.2d 19]; Fuentes v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (1976) 16 Cal.3d 1, 7 [128 Cal. Rptr. 673, 547 P.2d 449].)