Stone & Sallus represented a client who was defrauded out of his rightful inheritance by his brother. Both brothers were named equal beneficiaries on multiple life insurance policies belonging to their father. In 2015, after their father became incapacitated and could no longer pay the premiums, the brothers took over ownership of the policies and began paying the premiums themselves.
Later that year, the client’s brother requested access to part of the cash value in the policies for investment purposes. This led to a written agreement in which our client relinquished ownership of two out of the three policies in exchange for his brother’s promise to continue paying the premiums on all three. Our client retained ownership of the third policy, from which he was to receive the death benefits upon their father’s passing.
Unbeknownst to our client, his brother began making unauthorized withdrawals from the third policy, significantly reducing the death benefit. After their father passed away, our client received only one-fifth of the amount he was entitled to under the agreement. When questioned, the defendant falsely blamed their deceased father for the depleted funds and refused to pay his brother the fair share.
How Stone & Sallus Helped:
Stone & Sallus took swift legal action, filing a lawsuit for breach of contract and multiple fraud-related claims. We issued subpoenas for the relevant insurance policy and financial records and successfully defeated two motions to quash filed by the defendant.
Our investigation uncovered clear evidence that the brother had withdrawn hundreds of thousands of dollars from the third policy without consent. We also established that the defendant received over $300,000 in death benefits from other policies, giving him the means to fulfill his contractual obligation to our client.
We filed a Motion for Summary Adjudication on the breach of contract claim, seeking recovery of a six-figure sum plus 2.5 years of prejudgment interest. In response, the defendant made a $150,000 settlement offer, which we rejected due to the strength of our fraud claims and our intent to pursue punitive damages at trial.
As the hearing date approached, the defendant significantly increased his offer, nearly doubling it. Our client accepted this favorable settlement and was extremely satisfied with the outcome and the representation provided by Stone & Sallus.
