As CEO, Bills Jews took a struggling CareFirst BlueCr0ss BlueShield of Maryland and in 13 years turned it around into an efficient — and the state’s largest – health insurance company.

And when he left (okay, forced out) in 2006, he departed with a contract that called for a severance package of more than $18 million. And he is entitled to that pay.

At least a Baltimore County judge thinks so. On Friday, the judge basically told the Maryland insurance commissioner — who last year rejected Mr. Jews’ contract and ruled that the former CEO could only collect half of his severance pay — that his decision was petty, self-serving and “unlawful.” (Click here to read the IFAwebnews.com story.)

And who could blame the judge? Mr. Jews had a contract with CareFirst. Yep, it was for boatloads of money upon his departure, on top of a $2.2 million annual salary. Lots more than I could ever hope to receive. Lots more than 99% of the Maryland, or for that matter, the U.S. population, will ever receive. But certainly not out of line when compared to CEOs of other same-sized companies, both profit and non-profit. (The argument about the size of compensation for corporate CEOs will have to wait for another day.)

The man had a contract. And that contract was vetted and approved by the Maryland General Assembly. State law mandated that his compensation be approved by legislators because the company is a non-profit. In fact, it wasn’t only approved once; in 2003, the legislature again ordered that Mr. Jews’ contract be reviewed and it was found to be ethical and legal.

But Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler had a different agenda. A personal agenda. And he wasted lots of Maryland taxpayer money in an effort to pursue that agenda.

Mr. Tyler held hearings and brought in many witnesses to “prove” that the compensation package was not valid. In ruling, he went so far as to say that Mr. Jews’ compensation package was “illegal.”

Illegal? This coming from a Harvard-educated attorney?

Mr. Jews had a contract. And not just any contract. It was a contract scrutinized, sanitized and approved by virtually everyone in power in Maryland. No one – read: NO ONE — made noise about the contract when it was written and approved, or reviewed and approved a second time. Even former insurance commissioners (from other states) and experts testified in the 2008 hearings that Mr. Jews’ contract with CareFirst was legal, and that his compensation package was not out of line with what his peers in other states make. Not one person testified in Mr. Tyler’s 2008 hearings that the contact or the severance package was illegal; not one person

But again, Mr. Tyler — and probably the man who appointed him — had a different take.

Several years ago, Mr. Jews tried unsuccessfully to convert CareFirst into a for-profit entity. In a Democrat-controlled state such as Maryland (which has had one Republican governor in the past four decades, and which literally last had a Republican general assembly when cars were called “horseless carriages”), that is tantamount to high treason.

Mr. Jew’s proposal was soundly opposed by many Democrat powers that be, and they went so far as to enact legislation that brought CareFirst under strict oversight of the state. The insurance commissioner and the General Assembly all opposed Mr. Jews’ proposal to turn the company for-profit. Gov. Martin O’Malley (the Democrat who appointed Mr. Tyler, also a Democrat who was once the governor’s chief legal counsel) made his displeasure known.

And by golly, Mr. Tyler (who in other aspects appears to be a perfectly competent commissioner and is a personable man) was going to make Mr. Jews pay for his attempts to turn the company into a for-profit. But how? By ruling that his contact was “illegal” and denying him his due compensation.

Mr. Tyler, who in addition to being the chief legal counsel for the governor, was a private attorney and a former state deputy attorney general, has been told by a Maryland judge that his ruling was “unlawful,” and that his actions fell “far beyond the limits of governmental action.”

But that’s not all. The judge also said that Mr. Tyler’s actions were “uncalled for, not legislatively mandated, an unauthorized exercise of authority.” He went on to say that Mr. Tyler’s ruling was “arbitrary” and “erroneous as a matter of law.”

And to bolster the contention of many that he simply had a bone to pick with Mr. Jews, the judge wrote that Mr. Tyler’s actions were “unobjective, biased and quite personal in nature. There seemed to be a personal enmity found in the Commissioner’s words which is not understandable and certainly inappropriate in the context of the circumstances of this case.”

Wow. Mr. Tyler could find no expert in the U.S. — not one — to agree with him that Mr. Jews’ contract was illegal. And now a Maryland judge has all but flogged Mr. Tyler in public for what he has deemed a flagrant disregard for the rule of law and a personal vendetta.

The only thing worse that could happen now is if Mr. Tyler says he will appeal the judge’s ruling and continue with this irresponsible waste of taxpayer time and money. And in a statement issued to IFAwebnews.com, Mr. Tyler contends that he will do just that.