- Amount
- $49,000 (death benefit awarded to our client)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's son, the successor beneficiary, our client
- Case
- State Farm Life Insurance Co. v. Hoops
- Court
- U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
- Docket
- No. 1:16-cv-01136-RM-KLM
- Decided
- March 29, 2017
- Issue
- How much of a death benefit a former spouse takes when a divorce order awards her half of the policy's value
The insured named his wife as primary beneficiary of his life insurance policy and his son as successor beneficiary. The couple’s divorce decree was entered with property issues left for later, and the insured died days afterward. Months later the divorce court entered permanent orders, effective as of the decree date, awarding the former wife half of the policy’s “value.” Both the former wife and the son claimed the death benefit, and the insurer paid it into court.
We represented the son. Colorado’s revocation-on-divorce statute gives way to a court order dividing the marital estate, so the former wife kept whatever the permanent orders gave her. But those orders spoke as of the decree date, when the policy’s value was its cash surrender value of $40,000, not the death benefit. The court limited the former wife to half of that amount and awarded the remainder of the death benefit, with its share of interest, to our client.
What it shows. A divorce order can preserve part of a former spouse’s interest, but only what the order actually awards. An award of a policy’s value, measured before death, is not an award of the death benefit.
Read the court's order
- Magistrate judge's recommendation on summary judgment (Feb. 27, 2017) (PDF)
- Order adopting the recommendation (Mar. 29, 2017) (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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