Dana Kaskel v. Northern Trust Co.

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

Dana Kaskel, a widow with five children, invested $250,000 of the proceeds of her late husband’s life insurance policy with Martin, Livingston & Sterling, Ltd. in the form of a loan that MLS was to repay at the end of six weeks with interest at an annual rate of 8 percent. She wrote a check for $250,000 to MLS, and an agent of MLS named Forrester mailed the check to a Dr. Steven Shook. He was supposed to use it to obtain a $25 million loan from a company of which he was a principal and to invest the proceeds of the loan, generating profits in which MLS would share over…