- Amount
- $142,000 (accidental death benefit awarded to our client)
- Counsel
- Interpleader Law
- Result for
- The insured's brother, as administrator of their late mother's succession, our client
- Case
- Transamerica Premier Life Insurance Co. v. Guy
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
- Docket
- No. 2:18-cv-07993
- Decided
- June 28, 2021
- Issue
- Whether a conviction still on appeal disqualifies a beneficiary under La. R.S. 22:901
This case arose from the same tragedy as Standard Insurance Co. v. Guy. The insured couple each had accidental death coverage under one group certificate and had named no beneficiary, so the certificate paid by class: spouse, children, parents, siblings, then the estate. Their son was convicted of killing them, and the insurer filed an interpleader while the criminal case was pending.
We represented the insured mother’s side of the family. Both deaths were recorded at the same time, so under Louisiana’s rule each spouse was treated as having survived the other, and neither took the other’s benefit. Louisiana’s insurance code bars a beneficiary held by a final judgment to be criminally responsible for the insured’s death. The court held that a conviction counts even while an appeal is pending, and rejected the son’s argument that applying the rule before his appeal ended violated due process. The mother’s benefit passed to her own mother, who had since died, and after supplemental briefing the court awarded it to our client on behalf of that succession.
What it shows. In Louisiana, a conviction disqualifies a beneficiary without waiting for the appeal to end, and the next class takes the benefit.
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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