- Amount
- $4,631,000 (court-ordered payment to our client, plus 47.68% of the accrued interest)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's wife, the most recently named beneficiary, our client
- Case
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Lawless
- Court
- U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
- Docket
- No. 3:19-cv-13688-MAS-ZNQ
- Decided
- April 27, 2020
- Issue
- Competing claims to three ERISA group life plans after the insured named his new wife, resolved by a court-approved settlement involving minors
The insured had group variable universal life coverage under three employer plans governed by ERISA, worth about $9.5 million in total. In June 2018 he named his wife, our client, as the sole primary beneficiary under the two largest plans. Earlier designations had named his brother under one plan and his former wife, with their two sons as contingent beneficiaries, under another. He died in March 2019, and the widow, the former wife, the two minor sons and the brother all claimed benefits.
MetLife filed an interpleader in federal court in New Jersey in 2019. The court appointed a guardian ad litem for the boys, and in January 2020 MetLife deposited $9,714,711 and was dismissed. We represented the widow. The claimants then reached a settlement. Because the settlement involved minors, the court held a hearing, found it fair and in the boys’ best interests, and in April 2020 entered a final judgment paying our client $4,631,974 plus 47.68% of the accrued interest. The boys’ share went into trusts for them.
What it shows. Even in a large multi-plan dispute involving children, a recent ERISA designation gives the named beneficiary a strong position to settle from.
Read the court's order
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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