Summary
Shirley Bush appealed a summary judgment ruling concerning competing beneficiary designations for a Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Act policy issued to Patricia Moore. The Tenth Circuit held that the Denver Flight Service Station where Moore worked could qualify as her "employing office," despite the regional office receiving the later designation only after Moore's death. The court affirmed distribution of the policy proceeds equally among Bush, Phyllis Bremer, Shirley Guthrie, and Victoria Van Heiden.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Denver Flight Service Station where Moore worked was her employing office under 5 U.S.C. § 8705 and 5 C.F.R. § 870.104.
- Whether Moore's June 20, 1995 designation of beneficiary form was effective even though the FAA regional office in Renton received it after Moore's death.
- Whether summary judgment was properly entered for the equal beneficiaries.
Holdings
- The Denver Flight Service Station where Moore worked could be considered her employing office under 5 U.S.C. § 8705 and 5 C.F.R. § 870.104.
- The June 20, 1995 designation was valid because Moore delivered the signed and witnessed form to the responsible official at the office where she worked before her death.
- Summary judgment for Bremer, Guthrie, and Van Heiden was proper, and the four beneficiaries were each entitled to twenty-five percent of the policy proceeds.
Key quotations
“[A] designation, change, or cancellation of beneficiary ... not so executed and filed has no force or effect.” (¶ 13)
“This statutory purpose," it added, "is hardly fostered by a requirement that administrative processing to a central office must win a race with death.” (¶ 29)
Factual background
Patricia Moore, an FAA employee with no immediate family, initially designated Shirley Bush as the sole beneficiary of her Metropolitan Life federal employee group life-insurance policy. Eighteen days later, Moore executed a witnessed form naming Bush, Phyllis Bremer, Shirley Guthrie, and Victoria Van Heiden as equal beneficiaries. Moore delivered the second form to Teala Sparks, the administrative officer at the Denver Flight Service Station where Moore worked, but Moore died before the FAA regional office in Renton, Washington received the form. The dispute concerned whether receipt by the Denver station constituted receipt by Moore's employing office under FEGLIA.
Procedural history
Metropolitan Life filed an interpleader action and deposited the $52,000 policy proceeds with the district court, which then dismissed Metropolitan Life from the case. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court held that a designation naming Bush, Bremer, Guthrie, and Van Heiden as equal beneficiaries was valid and awarded each appellee and Bush twenty-five percent of the proceeds. The Tenth Circuit affirmed.