by dolly » Sat Sep 22, 2012 06:55 pm
the deceased was disowned by is family members. he lived with me for 18yrs prior to his death.we employed him and paid him a salary , housed, him fed him and cloth him. 3x policy companies insured him for a sum of 3million respectively. he stated he drank 2-3 beers in one policy. and other policies he stated he drank more than 5-8 beers. he earned a salary of 5000.00rand p/m.he died from natural causes.upon claim all 3 policy company repudiated the claim on the following grounds: disclosed incorrect information on the consumption of beers, he was over insured, beneficiary not blood related(insurable interest).can the deceased family claim the funds through a deceased estate , he died intestate, no will. what would be my chances to take this matter to a court of law.
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 10:24 pm Post Subject:
he died from natural causes.upon claim all 3 policy company repudiated the claim on the following grounds: disclosed incorrect information on the consumption of beers, he was over insured, beneficiary not blood related(insurable interest)
If this were happening in the United States, there could be several problems that would need to be considered.
1) How long were these policies in force? If more than two years, then the claims of misrepresentation concerning the consumption of beer on a daily basis is immaterial. The concept is called INCONTESTABILITY, and all states have adopted laws that limit the contestable period to no longer than two years from the date of policy issue.
2) Individual life insurance is a purely personal issue. No state, that I am aware of, restricts a person from naming anyone or anything as their life insurance beneficiary. Even those states whose probate laws automatically revoke a divorced spouse as a person's beneficiary do not prohibit the policyowner to rename that same person as the new beneficiary. A beneficiary is NOT REQUIRED to have an insurable interest.
3) Dying intestate does not affect life insurance policy beneficiaries. Life insurance is known as a "non-probate" (or non-probatable) asset. Payment of life insurance proceeds to a named beneficiary is supposed to completely bypasses the probate court. That's not to say that there aren't situations in which disputes arise between persons who believe they each are entitled to some or all of the death proceeds.
When that happens, insurance companies tend to file an "interpleader" with the Probate Court, paying the insurance money to the court and allowing the court to settle the matter for the insurance company and the beneficiaries of the estate.
Having said all that, since this is occurring in South Africa, the laws could be entirely different. Seek assistance from local counsel familiar with local insurance and probate laws.
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