Featured
Recently, the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled that an employee who has dependent spouse life insurance is entitled to the full benefits for which she had been paying premiums for over a year. First Reliance argued that no “evidence of good health form” had been completed by the insured and that the First Reliance did request that it be completed shortly before the Plaintiff’s husband died. Nevertheless, the Court ruled that First Reliance waived the right to request such a form when the insured had been issued and had paid for the coverage for over a year. The Plaintiff was awarded the full $500,000 in benefits. The full decision is here.
I recently argued a life insurance case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Here is a video of the oral argument. We are awaiting the Court's decision.
I was able to obtain a victory in the Ninth Circuit in this Salyers v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The Court held that Met Life had waived its right to require evidence of insurability when it had never asked for such a form to be completed and had deducted premiums for the life insurance coverage requested. The Court also adopted the common law rules of agency into ERISA, holding that when an employer accepts premiums and applications for coverage from the employees, the employer is acting as an agent of the insurance company.