NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA BATTLE OVER CIC’S REDOMESTICATION

New Mexico attorney general Herbert Balderas has filed a request in a federal court in California to file a brief in support of California Insurance Co (CIC), which has sued California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara for blocking its intended redomestication to New Mexico. In 2019, Lara’s department approved CIC’s request to move to New Mexico, a plan the company drew up as part of management’s buyout of the company from Berkshire Hathaway. New Mexico then proceeded to grant CIC a certificate of authority to operate there. However, the move was put on hold last November when California regulators placed CIC into conservatorship and called on CIC to sell its California business to another carrier. CIC sued Lara and two deputies in January, accusing them of illegally imposing a conservatorship on a financially sound insurer to obstruct a redomestication that had been approved by several states.