- Amount
- $207,000 (our client's share of the fund)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's husband, our client
- Case
- Everlake Life Insurance Co. v. Lomax
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee
- Docket
- No. 3:23-cv-00805
- Decided
- March 6, 2025
- Issue
- Whether a forged beneficiary change form has any effect
The insured and her husband had named each other as beneficiaries. A 2020 change form switched her $250,000 policy to their daughter, with the husband as secondary beneficiary. After her death, the husband said the signatures on that form were not genuine. The insurer’s own review agreed, and it paid the proceeds into court in Nashville.
We represented the husband. The daughter did not answer requests for admission asking her to admit that she had signed her parents’ names. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36, unanswered requests are deemed admitted, and those admissions established the forgery. Applying California law, where the policy was issued, the court held that the forged form was void and that the earlier designation controlled.
The court granted summary judgment for our client. With everyone’s agreement, it first paid a funeral-financing company that held an assignment from both claimants, and then directed the rest of the fund, with interest, to the husband.
What it shows. A forged change form has no legal effect. And in an interpleader, ignoring discovery can decide the case against the party who stays silent.
Read the court's order
- Memorandum opinion and order on summary judgment and disbursement (Mar. 6, 2025) (PDF)
- Same opinion on GovInfo (PDF)
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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