- Amount
- $155,000 (paid to our client from the court registry, including interest)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The named beneficiary, the insured's wife, our client
- Case
- Garden State Life Insurance Co. v. Estate of Raine
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi
- Docket
- No. 2:17-cv-103-KS-JCG
- Decided
- September 25, 2018
- Issue
- What evidence a slayer claim requires under Miss. Code Ann. § 91-1-25
The insured died in his home in 2011, and the death was ruled a homicide. Years later, no one had been arrested. His wife was the named beneficiary. His estate claimed she was responsible for his death and should be barred from the proceeds, and the insurer filed an interpleader.
We represented the wife. Mississippi’s slayer statute, Miss. Code Ann. § 91-1-25, bars a beneficiary who willfully caused or procured the insured’s death, and in a civil case the party invoking it must prove that by a preponderance of the evidence. The estate offered an affidavit from a relative and pointed to other circumstances, but the court found nothing tying our client to the death, calling the estate’s case “nothing more than mere speculation at this point.”
The court granted summary judgment for our client, denied reconsideration, and entered a final judgment ordering the fund disbursed.
What it shows. A slayer accusation can freeze a policy for years, but it cannot win without specific evidence. Suspicion alone is not enough.
Read the court's order
- Memorandum opinion and order (Sept. 25, 2018) (PDF)
- Final judgment and order of disbursement (Oct. 18, 2018) (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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