McCarthy v. Aetna Life Insurance

OPINION OF THE COURT

Tom, J.

The issue on appeal is whether, under the narrow circumstances of this case, the insured may change the designation of beneficiary on a life insurance policy, nunc pro tunc, by means of a testamentary disposition when the insurance company, by paying the proceeds of the policy to the court, has waived technical compliance with its change of beneficiary requirements.

The relevant facts are essentially undisputed. This is a tragic case in which the insured, while still a young man, and shortly after his 1972 marriage to plaintiff, was diagnosed in 1973 as suffering…