Becky Lynn Lettieri, AKA Becky Shears Lettieri v. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States

California beneficiaries of a life insurance policy appeal a judgment in favor of the insurer. The district court ruled that the substantive law of New York, rather than that of California, governed the questions of the enforceability of the policy. Because the plaintiffs had no legal theory upon which to proceed under New York law, they saved their objection to the choice-of-law ruling and judgment was entered.

The decedent, Alfredo Lettieri, a resident of New Jersey, while in poor health, bought a $400,000 five-year term life insurance policy from an agent Alfredo met in a New York City bar. Alfredo named his estate and his son Anthony, a California resident, as beneficiaries. His wife Becky later was substituted for the estate.

Alfredo obtained his required medical examination in New York City from a Dr. Martin, a physician on the insurer’s approved medical examiner list. Neither Alfredo’s medical history nor medical examination reports, which were completed and signed by Dr. Martin, revealed Alfredo’s current or past ailments (save for an early appendectomy). Alfredo had been addicted to heroin as a youth, had been hospitalized for alcohol-related treatment, was at the time…