INSURANCE

Appeal Court Upholds Garamendi on Executive Life: A state appeal court upheld most elements of former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi’s rehabilitation plan for Executive Life Insurance Co., the huge Los Angeles-based insurer that Garamendi seized as insolvent in 1991. Some holders of Executive Life policies challenged the plan, arguing that Garamendi had sold a large portion of the company’s “junk bonds” at $1 billion or more below their fair market value and that policyholders were entitled to recapture that money. But the three-judge Second District Appeal Court unanimously rejected that argument--a ruling that the losing side says it will appeal to the California Supreme Court.