Legal Question in Insurance Law in California
Thanks for your service! My question is multi-pronged. My brother has been missing over 13-years and in that time his story was written in the newspaper several times. The family and law enforcement exhausted all leads. No one has seen him and his property was left behind. He dissappeared while on Family leave Act from his job in Washington state in Linda, California helping his father. Yuba County authorities call this suspicious and subsequently served a warrant to search the father's home because among other things his story changed several times as to what happened, but came away empty. Three-years after my brother vanished his father attemted to kill a girlfriend and has since been convicted. There is no doubt my brother is dead because he was a Mama's boy and loved his family, but we have heard nothing and last year our mother passed away broken hearted. She was not ready to give up and never taken steps to declare his death legally and this is what I must do because my brother paid premiums on life insurance and has other money owed to him. My mother was the beneficiary and now I am entilted to what is due along with my sister. Here is the meat; Steve went missing on March 3, 1997 and a report was filed on the 5th. He never made it back from leave and was terminated from his job. However, Steve at the time he went missing was paid up on his policies and I have a check stub dated days later displaying this fact. So, if he is declared dead and is dated in conjuction with the police reports is the insurance company obligated to their contract? Also, Steve was given life insurance by his employer, but he also paid for AD&D and supplemental so are we beneficiaries entilted to all three policies? Additionally, he has annunities and he left behind a tax return as well as an uncashed final paycheck can we get these too? I will give you a rest now as I put alot out there, but this case is dynamic and legally interesting and if you could waste more time on me and would like additional information you have my contact information. Thank you very kindly. Ron
2 Answers from Attorneys
I'm sorry about your brother. He was legally presumed dead after 7 years missing. I fear that you may have missed the statute of limitations on collecting his life insurance and other money owed to him. But I am not an expert on life insurance litigation. Suggest you find an attorney with specific experience in this.
Your questions are pretty specialized. I would be surprised if you could find an attorney who could correctly and confidently answer them off the top of their head. What I can tell you is that Mr. Stone is not quite correct, in that the presumption at seven years is a presumption affecting evidence and proof, it is not conclusive and is certainly not self-executing. You still have to have a death certificate issued after a court proceeding declaring him dead. How that affects the statute of limitations would require legal research, which is beyond the scope of a free question, but it would seem to favor the argument that the limitations period would not start running until the death is legally declared. I can also tell you that as to his belongings/property, you probably need to probate some things. I believe that would all be part of the same case as the declaration of death. Unlike the insurance policies, however, which may not trigger time limits until the death is declared, other debts and obligations, such as the pay check, are probably time-barred. We maintain offices in the Sacrmento area. If you would like to arrange a consultation about how we might assist you in handling this, at no obligation, please let me know.
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