Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor
A statue of a goddess holding up the scales of justice

Life Health > Life Insurance

American National Seeks to Void Another Life Policy

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

American National Insurance is continuing what it says is an effort to cancel life insurance policies obtained by people who used fraudulent applications to take out life insurance on unrelated people.

The insurer has asked for court permission to cancel a life insurance policy owned by Michelle Sherlock of North Augusta, South Carolina, in a complaint filed last week in South Carolina District Court and available on Law.com Radar.

The Galveston, Texas-based insurer says some residents of the Murphy Village community in North Augusta participated in a conspiracy to take out life insurance on unrelated people using false information in the hope of collecting the death benefits when the insured people died.

The company is asking the court to declare the policy that Sherlock holds unenforceable and void from the beginning, based in part on the argument that it is “a wagering contract, obtained in bad faith, in violation of the rule against wagering contracts.”

A representative for American National declined to comment.

One telephone number linked to Michelle Sherlock in public directory information databases was disconnected. Another telephone number listed as belonging to Michelle Sherlock led to a voicemail machine that provided no identifying information. A message left on the voicemail system was not immediately returned.

American National has filed at least six similar Murphy Village suits in South Carolina District Court this year and other, similar suits in previous years.

In pleadings filed in connection with a similar American National suit filed in 2022, lawyers for one defendant argued that the applicants had paid premiums for a policy for years and that American National had paid no death benefits and suffered no harm.

Credit: Thinkstock


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.