Dallas Fort Worth Insurance Lawyer Blog

Life Insurance cases can have a surprising number of twists to them.  Readers of the DallasFortWorthInsuranceBlog have seen some of these various twists.

The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, issued an opinion in a case styled, Reliastar Life Insurance v. Trina R. Wiemer, Laura R. Weimer, and Roderich W. Weimer, Jr., which is interesting.

This case is an interpleader action.  Reliastar issued a life insurance policy on the life of Vincent H. Weimer, who died on August 19, 2017.  The policy was for $3,000,000.00 and this amount is claimed by competing persons.  Because of these competing persons, Reliastar filed this interpleader action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 22 and 28 U.S.C. Section 1335.

This 2018, Fort Worth Court of Appeals opinion is unique and involves a situation most life insurance lawyers will not ever see, however, it is worth knowing about due to some of the ruling by the appeals court.  The case is styled, Old American Insurance Company v. Lincoln Factoring, LLC.

Lincoln is an assignee of a portion of benefits under a life insurance policy.  Lincoln was assigned a portion of the benefits by the life insurance beneficiary for advancing costs of the burial of the insured.  The insured had a life insurance policy with Old American.

When the insured died, the beneficiary made a claim for benefits.  Instead of paying the benefits, Old American insisted they needed a copy of the death certificate.  When a copy of the death certificate was provided, Old American withheld payment because the death certificate stated that the manner of death of the insured was pending investigation.

Here is a situation almost never seen.  It involves a case out of the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.  It is styled, William M Arrington, Individually, as Beneficiary, and as Representative of the Estate of William L. Arrington v. Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Danny C. Burba, and Gordon B. Richardson.

William applied for a life insurance policy and Burba and he signed the application.  Southwestern accepted the application and issued William a life insurance policy with a face value of $976,500.  The policy was a flexible premium adjustable life insurance policy.  Burba advised William as to the annual premium amount he had to pay to keep the policy in effect.  Burba allegedly told William to make a down payment of $1,100 per month for the life of the policy.  From 1998 to 2015, William paid more than $200,000 toward the policy.

In February 2007, William received notice that Southwestern merged with Valley Forge Live Insurance Company.  In September 2007, Bill received notice that Valley had changed its name to Reassure America Life Insurance Company.  On July 31, 2008, Margarita Arrington requested that Gordon Richardson replace Burba as the agent of record.  However, Burba continued to be copied on correspondence regarding the policy, and internal records referred to Burba as the “active agent.”