Gerald E. Carlson v. Midwest Professional Planners

RILEY, Chief Judge.

Shortly before he died, James Carlson replaced his business partners, Gerald and Douglas Carlson — also his brother and cousin, respectively — as beneficiaries of his term life-insurance policy. The surviving Carlsons, who thus missed out on a $1.5 million payout, say James was only able to change the beneficiaries unilaterally because the agent, who earlier had prepared the policy, mistakenly failed to list the Carlsons as co-owners and no one ever cured the omission. Sitting in diversity jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1), the district court 1 dismissed the…