Death Benefits
Authors: Michael A Kahn
Copyright © 2015 by
First E-book Edition 2015
ISBN: 9781464204418 ebook
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
The historical characters and events portrayed in this book are inventions of the author or used fictitiously.
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Contents
For my father,
who always had time
to play catch,
and
For my mother,
who always had time
to read me a story.
MEMORANDUM
TO: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ishmael Richardson Chairman
FROM:Â Â Â Reed St. Germain
               Acting Managing Partner
               St. Louis Office
RE:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Estate of Stoddard Anderson
I learned today that the
St. Louis Business Journal
is working on a Stoddard Anderson retrospective for next week. I will do what I can to put some positive spin on the Abbott & Windsor situation down here,
i. e.
, the future looks good, plans to expand practice groups, adding new attorneys, etc.
I will continue to keep you posted on a daily basis until we meet after the funeral on Friday.
Attached below are photocopies of the press coverage last week. The paper garbled my Rock of Gibraltar quote, but you already know how unreliable newspaper reporters can be.
I look forward to our meeting, Ishmael.
“Call me, Ishmael,” I had told him, half hoping he wouldn't. But he didâor rather, one of his secretaries did. To ask if I could meet Mr. Richardson for lunch on Monday in Cathedral Hall of the University Club. I could, and I did.
Mr. Richardson was running late, the maitre d' explained with a mournful look. I assured him that I would somehow persevere. Relieved, he led me through the enormous dining room to one of the coveted “private” tablesâreserved for bank presidents, corporate CEOs, and chairmen of major law firms. The table was nestled between a pair of massive fluted columns that rose three stories to the vaulted timber ceiling of Cathedral Hall.
I ordered a glass of wine and looked around. Most of the tables were occupied. Sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows overhead, daubing muted reds and blues on the gray stone walls and white tablecloths. Although I spotted a few familiar faces, the lunch scene at Cathedral Hall still looked as if David Lynch had been in charge of production design: bankers, lawyers, and other moneychangers doing deals over charred meat in a fake Gothic cathedral.
My table was by a window overlooking Michigan Avenue. As I sipped my wine and gazed at the brown-baggers on the grass near the Art Institute, I realized that it was at this very same table, almost three summers ago to the day, that Ishmael Richardson had retained me to investigate what he had described as an “awkward little matter” involving the identity of something named Canaan that was buried in a pet cemetery. The matter hadn't stayed little for long, and it got a whole lot more awkward before it was over. Although the firm paid my bill without complaint, there had been a definite downturn in referral business from Abbott & Windsor ever since.
Which is why I'd been delighted when my secretary told me that Ishmael Richardson was on Line 2. Summers tend to be slow for trial lawyers, largely because of overlapping vacation schedules of judges, court clerks, witnesses, and other lawyers. My next few weeks looked especially slow: A major new case I was defending had suddenly settled. So when it's July and a big case has just settled and there's a hole in your calendar and the chairman of Abbott & Windsor is on Line 2, you get off Line 1 in a hurry.
But visions of a challenging case topped with a fat fee dissolved when Ishmael told me his firm might need my services with regard to an “awkward little matter” involving an insurance policy. Although he had used the magic three words, they lost their promise when coupled with the dreaded phrase “insurance policy.” Had I ever done any work for Mid-Continent Assurance Company, he asked.
I silently groaned. A “coverage” dispute.
There are trial lawyers out thereâthousandsâwho make their living litigating the meaning of terms in insurance policies. One of the mysteries of the law is the way that basic wordsâwords as hard and precise as cut diamondsâbecome warm saltwater taffy when inserted at critical points in insurance policies. Because millions of dollars can hinge on a court's explication of one of the Four Horsemen of the Insuring Clauseâ“sudden,” “unexpected,” “occurrence,” and “loss”âentire law firms have been built on the legal fees paid by insurance companies, to say nothing of the cottage industry of legal publishers and law school professors that have been feasting at the insurance trough for years.
Three of the largest law firms in Chicago handle nothing but insurance coverage disputes. The sexiest man in my law school class at Harvard joined the in-house legal staff of the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. So be it. I couldn't even force myself to read my auto policy.
“No,” I had told Ishmael over the phone. “I've never represented Mid-Continent.”
“Good. We may not need separate counsel on this matter, but in the event we do, it would appear that you could handle the matter without a conflict of interest.”
Or any interest, I thought. “If you need me I'd be glad to help,” I said, trying to force some enthusiasm into my voice. “Call me, Ishmael.”
And he had. And here I was.
“I am terribly sorry I'm late, Rachel. Please forgive me.”
I looked up from my reverie, surprised. I hadn't heard his approach. “Don't be silly,” I said. “I've been enjoying the view, and the wine is delicious.”
It had been more than a year since I had last seen Ishmael Harrison Richardson. Although he was seventy-two years old, he looked terrificâfar younger than his age. His face was deeply tanned, his white hair thick and wavy, and his eyes a pale gray. Tall and slim, immaculate as usual in a gray pinstriped suit, blue oxford cloth shirt, and red-on-navy tie, Ishmael Richardson seemed the very apotheosis of what he was: chairman of one of the nation's largest and most powerful law firms.
He had joined the firm of Abbott, Windsor, Harrison & Reynolds in 1939 after graduating
summa cum laude
from Harvard Law School. Back then, the firm had consisted of six lawyers. Nowâa half-century later and two names shorterâAbbott & Windsor had more than five hundred lawyers, with branch offices in Washington, DC, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Louis, Palo Alto, Taipei, Singapore, and Riyadh. It was the third oldest and second largest firm in Chicago, and, in the opinion of many, the most powerful law firm in the Midwest. Ishmael Richardson had been chairman of the firm during its remarkable growth in size, profits, and prestige over the past decade and was generally credited with much of the firm's success.
Viewed from a distance, he was an imposing, almost regal figure, made all the more so by his reputation, his press clippings (how many lawyers can boast cover stories in
Forbes
and
Vanity Fair
?), and his astounding list of clients (which included not only Fortune 500 companies and national political figures but several nation states). But to his clients, like most great corporate attorneys, Ishmael Richardson was neither imposing nor regal. He had the bedside manner of a country doctor and the ability to focus all of his considerable attention and empathy on whomever sought his counsel. During a typical day he might talk to dozens of clients on the telephone, yet each hung up satisfied that his problem was the
only
problem on Ishmael's mind. I had admired him when I was a young associate at Abbott & Windsor. During the four years since I had left the firm, my admiration had grown to include real affection.
After exchanging pleasantries and placing our orders, Ishmael turned to the purpose of the meeting. “I believe St. Louis is your home town.”
I nodded.
“You may recall that Abbott and Windsor opened an office in St. Louis last summer.”
“In the Boatmen's Tower on Broadway, right?”
“Correct. We have approximately fifty lawyers in the office now. We had hoped to double the size in two years.”
“Had?”
“Stoddard Anderson was the managing partner of our St. Louis office.” He paused to take a sip of his water. “He died last month.”
“I'm sorry,” I said.
He nodded. “Thank you, Rachel.”
“Was it sudden?”
Ishmael leaned back. “Sudden? No. Quick? Probably. He committed suicide.”
“Oh, God. How?”
“He slit his wrists and neck with a razor blade. He bled to death in a hotel bathtub.”
“That's awful.”
We paused as the waiter set down our salad plates and sprinkled on ground pepper with a mill the size of a Louisville Slugger.
“As you may have surmised,” Ishmael said after the waiter hauled off the pepper mill, “I asked you here today to discuss an awkward little matter involving the suicide of Mr. Anderson.”
I smiled. “As someone once said, this sounds like
déja vu
all over again.”
Ishmael shook his head, chuckling. “I am quite certain that this matter will seem tame in comparison to the Canaan investigation.”
“Then it has to involve an insurance coverage issue,” I said.
He looked at me with surprise. “How did you guess?”
“Elementary, my dear Ishmael. When we talked on the phone last week you asked if Id ever represented Mid-Continent Assurance Company. I assume you aren't moonlighting these days as an insurance agent.”
He smiled. “Your assumption is correct, Rachel. This is indeed a matter where you may be adverse to the insurance company. And,” he raised his eyebrows, “possibly adverse to Abbott and Windsor, although I sincerely hope it will not come to that.”
I removed a legal pad and fountain pen from my briefcase. “What kind of insurance policy?” I asked as I scribbled the insurance company's name at the top of the first page.
“Life.”
I paused, and then looked up. “So my client is Mr. Anderson's widow?”
Ishmael nodded. “Dorothy Anderson. She prefers the name Dottie.”
“Is the carrier denying coverage?”
“Not yet, but we anticipate a dispute over the death benefits. The insurer claims to be investigating the situation. All it has done so far is issue a reservation of rights letter in which it raises the suicide exclusion.”
“Do you have the letter with you?” I asked.
“Not with me. Melvin Needlebaum should have a copy. He has conducted a preliminary investigation of the insurance issues.”
I couldn't suppress a smile. “How's old Melvin doing?”
Ishmael had better luck with a straight face. “Melvin is a hardworking and brilliant young man. I am certain he will provide you with a thorough briefing on the legal issues.”
“I'm sure it will be thorough.” I paused to eat some of my broiled Lake Superior whitefish. “What are the issues?” I asked.
“The potential problem arises out of the somewhat unusual circumstances of the death. This was not an ordinary suicide, assuming there is ever such a thing. Stoddard Anderson was last seen alive shortly before noon on June eighteenth, when he left the St. Louis offices of Abbott & Windsor. According to his secretary, he had a luncheon meeting at the St. Louis Club.” Ishmael paused. “Anderson never arrived at the club. He disappeared. Four days later, he was found dead in a hotel bathtub near the St. Louis airport. The coroner ruled it a suicide.”
“How long had he been dead?” I asked.
“Not for more than a day. The medical examiner placed the time of death at twelve to twenty-four hours before the body was discovered.”
“Where was he between the time he disappeared and the time he died?”
“No one knows, Rachel. He checked into the hotel on the day he disappeared. It is my understanding that the police have not yet determined whether he remained in the room during the entire three days before his death.”
“Did his wifeâ¦his widowâdid he contact her before he died?”
“I don't believe so. As far as the police can determine, he contacted no one. His activities, if any, during the last few days of his life are not yet known.”
“How much insurance is involved?” I asked.
“The total package is worth over two million dollars. Melvin will have the precise figures.”
“How, and why, do I fit in?”
“The amount of the death benefits payable to Mrs. Anderson may depend, first, upon whether Stoddard Anderson intended to commit suicide at the time he purchased the policy and, second, upon whether he was insane at the time he killed himself.”
“When did he take out the policy?”
“Four months before he died. Prior to that, his life insurance package was somewhat modest, at least for someone at Stoddard's station in life. He more than quadrupled his coverage in February of this year and added the accidental death benefits package.”
“Is Abbott and Windsor handling his estate?”
Ishmael nodded.
“What's the size of the rest of the estate?” I asked.
“Far smaller than one might imagine. Stoddard Anderson sustained significant losses in the stock market crash of 1987. Those problems were compounded by his heavy investments in commercial real estate, primarily through limited partnerships. The recent slump in that market has had a materially adverse impact on the assets of the estate.”
“So the widow could use the death benefits.”
“Precisely.”
I mulled it over. “Suicide is not an accident. If he was sane at the time he committed suicide, the insurance company wouldn't have to pay the accidental death benefits.”
“Correct, or so Melvin has concluded.”
“So it might be in the widow's best interest to argue that her husband was insane when he killed himself,” I mused.
“If the facts would support such an argument,” Ishmael added with an edge in his voice.
“But of course,” I said with a smile. “I see the conflict. It would be awkward for Abbott and Windsor to make the insanity argument.”
Ishmael nodded. “Our St. Louis office opened just a year ago, Rachel. The suicide of the managing partner of that office has already been a most unfortunate source of embarrassment in the St. Louis legal and business community. Were Abbott and Windsor to discharge its professional duty to zealously represent the estate in order to maximize the insurance payment to Anderson's widow, we could find ourselves in the position of having to argue that the managing partner of our St. Louis office was insane at the time he committed suicide.”
“If the facts would support such an argument,” I added.
“But of course.” He forced a smile, which quickly vanished as he leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “At the moment, Stoddard Anderson's suicide is a local embarrassment. I cannot allow my firm to be placed in the position of publicly advocating that one of its more prominent partners was insane when he died. Clients understand that personal griefâthat overwhelming personal traumaâcan lead to suicide. No client, however, could ever be comfortable with the thought that an insane man was handling his affairs, or, even worse, that a firm could be so imprudent as to place an insane man in the position of the managing partner of one of its branch offices. Clients pay us handsomely for our expertise and judgment. A mentally disturbed managing partner tends to suggest a lack of both. What is now merely a provincial setback would escalate into a national scandal, suitably tailored for the
American Lawyer
and our competitors. It could subject my firm to mockery and derision in the national legal community.” His eyes blazed. “I will not allow that to happen.”