Recently, the FMJ Litigation Team secured a summary judgment victory for our long-time client, Sons of Norway, which was over 115 years in the making! Below is a historical look at the case, as well as FMJ’s favorable actions for our client.
1906
Sons of Norway issues a life insurance policy to an individual in 1906 out of its Cloquet, MN lodge. As part of that policy, the company issues a paper life insurance Certificate written in an old Norse dialect which laid out the policy terms. The policy provided $100 of life insurance coverage in exchange for an eight (“0.08”) cent monthly premium payment and the policy was made payable to the individual’s father. The only way to pay this monthly premium was to attend the monthly Sons of Norway meetings at the lodge. The individual who received the policy moves out of Minnesota, stops attending meetings, and thus stops making his monthly premium payments.
1970s
The individual passes away in the 1970s and no claim is ever made on the policy.
2020
The individual’s grandson sues Sons of Norway and presents the antique 1906 insurance certificate to the Court. The grandson argues that since his dad was the beneficiary and he inherited the Certificate, he was entitled to the proceeds of the policy. However, the grandson claims he was owed more than $700,000, instead of the $100 in policy benefits listed on the Certificate.
The grandson argues that the Certificate was not a $100 policy that cost eight cents per month, but rather a policy that his grandfather had purchased for $100 and paid in full. The grandson further argues that any reference to “0.08” was actually an annual interest rate that Sons of Norway has agreed to pay on that $100 payment every year. This $100 had grown to more than $700,000 since 1906 and the grandson was entitled to all of it.
2021
Enter the FMJ Litigation team. The team obtains an English translation of the certificate which confirms that the policy pays the beneficiary “benefits in the amount of $100.” This makes clear that even if this policy was still somehow in effect after all these years, it only paid out $100 in benefits. There was no evidence at all that the reference to $100 was for a pre-paid amount. The translation also confirmed that the reference to “0.08” was for a monthly “assessment,” a term which the Sons of Norway Constitutions (from 1909-1919) defined as a monthly premium payment, not an interest rate. These documents also confirmed that any policy issued by Sons in 1906 had to be paid monthly by delivering payments in person through the date of the insured’s death for benefits to be paid.
Another issue that was discovered through the translation of these documents was that the grandson’s father was not the actual named beneficiary on the policy, but instead, the insured’s own father that was named.
FMJ moved for summary judgment on behalf of Sons of Norway seeking the dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims in their entirety before trial. The team argued that the grandson did not have standing to collect benefits under the policy because he was not the beneficiary (nor was his father) on the policy, that the policy had long since elapsed since no premium payments had been made since 1906.
The Court agreed with all of FMJ’s arguments and the motion for summary judgment was granted. The case against Sons of Norway was dismissed without any payment being made to the grandson under the policy.
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