QUESTION
i need help concerning the payout of an annuity
Asked on Oct 26th, 2013 on Breach of Contract - Tennessee
More details to this question:
My mother took out an annuity with New York Life in 2005 which in the contract had a 100% payout to her estate when she died. She also had one of her sons on the annuity as the co-owner, who also signed the original contract. This son tried to have the payout changed to him instead of the estate. It was changed back to 100% payout to the estate. He has filed a lawsuit falsely trying to steal the money. Now New York Life has filed a lawsuit against me, the executor or the estate and will not payout the moneys to probate court. It looks like New York Life is trying to allow a court to decide who's money it is and not honoring the contract.
1 ANSWER
New York Life is not a judge. Regardless of how meritless you think the other side's case is, New York Life would be foolish to pay the money to either of the two disputants until a Court decides who's right. If New York Life paid the estate, and a Court later decided that the son was right, New York Life would be liable to the son. However, what I would have expected to happen would be for New York Life to start what is known as an interpleader action, where it names the disputants in a lawsuit, deposits the disputed funds in Court, and lets the Court sort the mess out. Are you sure that New York Life is not depositing, or has not deposited, the disputed monies with a Court? Without knowing much about the facts, I would think that the Court would compel New York Life to do so.
Answered on Oct 28th, 2013 at 12:11 PM