Keen v. Weaver

in which Chief Justice PHILLIPS, Justice ENOCH, Justice SCHNEIDER and Justice SMITH joined.

In this case, an ERISA pension plan participant designated his wife as the plan’s primary beneficiary. The couple later divorced and, in an agreement incorporated in the divorce decree, the former wife waived any interest in the plan, agreeing that it would be the participant’s sole property. When the participant died some thirteen years later without changing his beneficiary designation, the former wife and the participant’s alternative beneficiary lodged competing claims to the plan proceeds. We must…