On June 19, 2012, I wrote an article about Gary Giordano filing a law suit against American Express for payment of the insurance policy that he purchased for their trip to Aruba. Yesterday I noticed some articles that reported a subsidiary of American Express has filed suit in Maryland federal court basically asking the court to invalidate the insurance contract that Giordano purchased claiming that Giordano didn’t have an insurable interest in Gardner’s life.
It is presumed that you have an insurable interest in the life of another if that person’s death results in a financial loss to you. A financial loss could be loss of future income, final expenses, or loan repayment. Insurable interest is one of the arcane insurance principals that is rarely heard by the public but is discussed by insurance professionals. In this case it doesn’t appear that Giordano had an insurable interest in Robyn’s life. Will that result in the Court invalidating the insurance policy or will they direct a different result?
One logical outcome could be that the Court decides that the policy is valid since it was paid for and it was issued by the insurance company; however, since Giordano doesn’t have an insurable interest in Robyn’s life the court could invalidate him from being her beneficiary and direct that the benefits be paid to her estate.
It will be interesting to see what the Court decides.