Is money “tangible property”?  What about checks?  These questions recently were answered in the negative by a New Jersey Appellate Court in Estate of Keppel v. Angela’s Angels Home Healthcare, LLC, 2019 WL 2060285 (May 9, 2019). Donna Thomas was a home health aide employed by Angela’s Angels Home Healthcare.  She was no angel, however.  While working for Louis Keppel over a period of two years, she wrote checks on Mr. Keppel’s account totaling $225,000.  The checks were made payable to herself, her son, her son’s girlfriend, “cash,” and a company she set up.  The theft of funds was not dis ..read more

A life insurance policy is valid only if the insured has an “insurable interest” in the person covered by the policy at the time it is issued. Where no insurable interest exists, the policy is void and the policyholder has no right to recovery.  The insurable interest requirement is grounded in public policy so as to discourage the use of insurance for illegitimate purposes, and mitigate the risk that a beneficiary will intentionally harm the covered person in order to wrongfully recover benefits.  In 1876, the United States Supreme Court held that “[a] man cannot take out insurance on the ..read more