Opinion
October 27, 1986
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Morrison, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof which awarded the plaintiffs nominal damages for breach of contract and for wrongful termination, and substituting therefor a provision dismissing the complaint in its entirety. As so modified, the judgment is affirmed, with costs to the defendant payable by the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs' respective employment contracts as insurance agents are not subject to Insurance Law § 3429. Therefore, a violation of the statute cannot be the basis of a breach of the plaintiffs' contracts with defendant. The contracts were executed in 1977, but Insurance Law § 3429 (former § 168-g) was not enacted until 1979 (L 1979, ch 690, § 6, amended L 1980, ch 217, § 6). To deem the contract subject to Insurance Law § 3429 would make the statute retroactive in effect (see, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 51). However, statutes are generally construed as prospective in application (see, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 51 [b]; Matter of Deutsch v Catherwood, 31 N.Y.2d 487, 490; Western N.Y. Pa. Ry. Co. v City of Buffalo, 296 N.Y. 93, 98; Pioneer Transp. Corp. v Kaladjian, 105 A.D.2d 698). A court may not construe an agreement so that it is modified by a subsequent statutory enactment which changes the rights and obligations of the parties absent a clear expression in the contract that such is the parties' intention (see, Pioneer Transp. Corp. v Kaladjian, supra). Thus, the defendant's alleged "redlining" in ceasing to make auto liability insurance available to the plaintiffs because of the geographic location of the risk is not a breach of the plaintiffs' employment contracts with the defendant.
The plaintiffs' employment contracts were terminable at will by either party. Therefore, the plaintiffs have failed to state a cause of action to recover damages for wrongful termination (see, Murphy v American Home Prods. Corp., 58 N.Y.2d 293). Furthermore, the remedy for the termination of an insurance agent's contract because of geographic location is administrative (see, Insurance Law § 3430 [a] [2]; § 2401 et seq.; 11 NYCRR 218.5) and the Insurance Law does not create a private right of action or provide a compensatory remedy for agents whose contracts are so terminated (see, Insurance Law § 3430 [a] [2]; § 2401 et seq.; accord, Kurrus v CNA Ins. Co., 115 A.D.2d 593). Mangano, J.P., Brown, Rubin and Spatt, JJ., concur.