- Amount
- $307,000 (life insurance proceeds disbursed to our client)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's brother, our client
- Case
- American General Life Insurance Co. v. Ball
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
- Docket
- No. 2:25-cv-00152-JPS
- Decided
- November 12, 2025
- Issue
- Competing claims by a spouse and a brother after a beneficiary change processed while a divorce was pending
The insured’s spouse had been the primary beneficiary of his $300,000 life insurance policy. According to the insurer’s complaint, a change naming his brother was processed while a divorce was pending, shortly before the insured died. Both the spouse and the brother claimed the benefit, and the insurer filed an interpleader and deposited the proceeds with the court.
We represented the brother. The court discharged the insurer under the federal interpleader statutes and left the two claimants to resolve their competing claims. The claimants then resolved the dispute by agreement, and on our client’s unopposed motion the court ordered the registry fund, less the insurer’s fee award, paid to our client with interest.
What it shows. A beneficiary change made while a divorce is pending can be challenged, but a federal interpleader gives both sides a forum to resolve the claim quickly. Here it ended with a court-ordered payment to our client less than ten months after the case was filed.
Read the court's order
For a detailed legal summary of this decision, see interpleader.com's decisions library.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This summary describes the court's ruling; it is not legal advice about any other case.
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