Insurance policy/courtesy photoLife Insurance Policy Ruled Off-Limits After Lawyer's Suicide
The case hinged on whether a policy restriction for suicide should not apply because of a claim the woman was induced by her medication to take her life.
December 12, 2018 at 12:12 PM
5 minute read
A Newark federal judge has dismissed a suit seeking to recover $3.5 million from two life insurance policies in the name of a Time Warner attorney who committed suicide.
Christine Arena was an assistant general counsel at Time Warner when she died at age 41 in April 2015. She graduated from Fordham Law School in 1999 and spent six years at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York before joining Time Warner. Following Arena's death, her husband, Gianfranco Arena, sought to collect on two life insurance policies she took out in 2014, one for $1 million and the other for $2.5 million.
The insurance company refused to pay, citing policy language barring claims in case of suicide. The husband then filed a lawsuit, represented by lawyers from Cravath, claiming the policy restriction on suicides should not apply because Christine Arena was induced to commit suicide by medications prescribed by a psychiatrist.
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