Also known as: personal insurance · life insurance · personal lines insurance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A category of insurance that protects against loss arising from injury to or death of a human being. It encompasses life, health, disability, and similar policies that pay benefits upon specified personal contingencies.
Ivan Ivanov executes a will that devises the proceeds of his life insurance policy to the trustee of a revocable trust he created during his lifetime. The trust terms are set out in a separate written instrument identified in the will. Upon Ivan's death the insurance proceeds pass directly into the trust and are administered according to its terms rather than as part of a testamentary trust.
After the insured's death, three claimants assert conflicting rights to the same life insurance proceeds. The insurer deposits the face amount into federal court and names the three claimants as adverse parties. The court permits the insurer to interplead even while denying full liability to any claimant.
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Imran Iyer purchases a life insurance policy while domiciled in State A. After moving to State B he dies and his beneficiary sues the insurer. The court applies the law of State A because that was the insured's domicile when the policy was applied for and no other state has a more significant relationship to the transaction.
Imani Idowu, a resident of State A, receives a life insurance policy solicitation by mail from an insurer headquartered in State B. She applies, pays premiums from her State A bank account, and later sues the insurer in State A for denial of benefits. The court exercises personal jurisdiction because the insurer deliberately sold and maintained the policy with a State A resident.
Iris Irons, a California resident, holds a life insurance policy issued by a foreign insurer. A state statute requires disclosure of certain Holocaust-era policy information. The insurer challenges the statute as preempted by federal executive agreements. The court holds that the federal agreements preempt the state disclosure requirement.
Ira Irving, a parent whose child attends a private school that discriminates on the basis of race, sues the IRS for granting tax-exempt status to the school. He claims the exemption subsidizes discrimination and injures him as a taxpayer. The court dismisses the suit for lack of standing because the alleged injury is too attenuated from the challenged tax treatment.
A third party is an intended beneficiary when the policy names the party as beneficiary and directs proceeds to satisfy an obligation of the insured or to confer a gift. Recognition of the right is appropriate to effectuate the parties' intention under Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 302(1).
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Yes. A single deliberate contact consisting of the solicitation and maintenance of an insurance contract with a forum resident is sufficient when the suit arises out of that contact and the forum has a strong interest in providing redress for its residents.
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Yes. Modern interpleader permits a stakeholder to invoke the remedy even while denying liability in whole or in part, provided multiple claimants assert adverse rights that expose the insurer to potential double or multiple liability.
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…courts must follow conflict of laws rules prevailing in the states in which they sit. We left this open in Ruhlin v. New York Life Insurance Co. , 304 U. S. 202, 208, n. 2. The frequent recurrence of the problem, as well as the conflict of approach to the problem between the Third Circuit’s opinion here and that of the First…