- Amount
- $100,000 (death benefit awarded)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The named beneficiary, the insured's former wife, our client
- Case
- American General Life Insurance Co. v. Martin
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
- Docket
- No. 1:22-cv-04422
- Decided
- December 3, 2024
- Issue
- Whether 750 ILCS 5/503(b-5) applies to a divorce entered before it took effect
The insured bought a $100,000 policy in 2005 and named his wife. They divorced in 2006, and he never named anyone else. After his death in 2022, his former wife and his children from other relationships each claimed the benefit. The insurer told the court it could not tell whether Illinois’s revocation-on-divorce provision, which took effect in 2019, reached a divorce from 2006, and it filed an interpleader in Chicago.
We represented the former wife. Under Illinois law, a statute that is silent about retroactivity applies to earlier events only if it is procedural. The court held that 750 ILCS 5/503(b-5) is substantive, because it takes away a former spouse’s contract and property rights and overrides the policyholder’s own choice. It therefore did not apply to the 2006 divorce. The court also explained that Sveen v. Melin decided only that retroactive application of such a statute can be constitutional, not whether Illinois’s statute is retroactive. A separate challenge to the validity of the marriage failed for lack of evidence.
The court held that our client was entitled to the interpleaded funds and entered judgment for her.
What it shows. Before assuming a divorce removed a former spouse, check when the divorce happened and when the state’s statute took effect.
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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