Crime doesn't pay
Wife takes 5th during deposition, cannot recover on life insurance policy
Angelina and Bryan were married; several years later, Bryan took out a $1M life insurance policy naming Angelina as primary beneficiary, and his kids as secondary beneficiaries. Three months later, Bryan was killed; and Torre was convicted of the murder. There was evidence that Torre and Angelina were lovers and had been heard talking about killing Bryan for the insurance.
The insurance company filed a declaratory judgment action so the court could determine who should get the proceeds. Angelina refused to testify at Torre’s trial and refused to answer questions in her deposition on Fifth Amendment (self incrimination) grounds. The trial court ruled that Angelina was involved in her husband’s murder and could not benefit from the insurance, and awarded the proceeds to the children. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.
The Ninth Circuit said that it was ok to preclude Angelina from testifying at trial, since she had taken the Fifth at deposition. It would be unfair to allow Angelina to invoke the privilege during discovery and then disclose the information during trial. Further, the trial court acted within its discretion to draw an adverse inference from Angelina’s assertion of the Fifth, because there was independent evidence about the facts to which she refused to testify, and there was a substantial need for the testimony. Finally, it was proper to admit deposition testimony of a witness who said he was approached by Angelina and Torre to kill Bryan. The witness was out of state and therefore, unavailable. Testimony about what Torre told the witness were also admissible as a statement of a co-conspirator.
Nationwide Life Ins. Co. v. Richards, 541 F.3d 903 (9th Cir., 2008)
