EMH Wins Major Delaware Case

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Wilmington, DE. (September 20, 2011) — The Delaware Supreme Court provided a tremendous victory for the life insurance industry today, ruling for an EMH client in one of the most significant opinions to date in stranger owned life insurance ("STOLI") litigation.  The Delaware high court followed the arguments set forth in EMH's briefing and construed the Delaware insurable interest statutes as prohibiting wagering policies, prohibiting a third-party from financially inducing an insured to act as a straw-man in a wager, and as requiring an insured to actually procure and fund a policy for an insurable interest to exist.

The Dawe case has wide-reaching implications on contestability and insurable interest issues in STOLI cases throughout the country.  Tom Hetherington and Jarrett Ganer handled the case before the Delaware Supreme Court.  The Delaware high court's opinion can be found here.  You can listen to the audio of Mr. Hetherington's Delaware Supreme Court oral argument here.