- Amount
- $297,000 (spouse rider benefit awarded to our client)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's wife, the named primary beneficiary, our client
- Case
- Primerica Life Insurance Co. v. Donley
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama
- Docket
- No. 3:18-cv-00995-AKK
- Decided
- October 18, 2019
- Issue
- Whether an unresolved police investigation, without evidence, triggers Alabama's slayer statute
The insured’s wife was the named primary beneficiary of a spouse rider on a life insurance policy. After the insured was killed, the insurer interpleaded the benefit. Contingent beneficiaries, minor children represented by a court-appointed guardian ad litem, opposed payment to the wife because a police investigation of the death remained open.
We represented the wife. Alabama’s slayer statute disqualifies a beneficiary who feloniously and intentionally killed the insured. Our client had not been arrested, charged or convicted, and the objection offered no evidence connecting her to the death. The court held that an open investigation alone is not evidence, granted our client’s motion, and entered final judgment directing the remaining benefit, with interest, paid to her.
What it shows. The party invoking a slayer statute must offer evidence. Suspicion and an unresolved investigation do not, by themselves, disqualify a named beneficiary.
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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