De la Mata v. American Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 08 August 1991
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 90-173 MMS.
• Citation: De la Mata v. American Life Ins. Co., 771 F.Supp. 1375 (D. Del. 1991)
• Parties: Victoria de la MATA, Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

771 F. Supp. 1375

Victoria de la MATA, Plaintiff, v.AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 90-173 MMS.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

August 8, 1991.

Victor F. Battaglia of Biggs & Battaglia, Wilmington, Del. (Martin E. Karlinsky of Scheffler Karlinsky & Stein, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff.

Frederick W. Iobst and Melanie K. Sharp of Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, Wilmington, Del., for defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY M. SCHWARTZ, Senior District Judge.

PlaintiffVictoria de la Mata Mendoza seeks (a) the recognition and enforcement of a Bolivian money judgment against defendantAmerican Life Insurance Company("ALICO") and (b) punitive damages for defendant's alleged bad faith refusal to provide payments under certain insurance policies.Currently before the court are (a) cross summary judgment motions on the recognition claim and (b)defendant's motion for summary judgment on the bad faith refusal claim.The court has diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(2).For reasons which follow, ALICO's summary judgment will be granted on the recognition claim and its summary judgment motion on plaintiff's bad faith refusal claim will be denied as moot.

I.Background

ALICO is a Delaware life insurance company which, inter alia, engages in the insurance business throughout Latin America.According to a notarized certificate from the Bolivian Registry of Commerce, ALICO registered to conduct business transactions in Republic of Bolivia in 1982.¹The plaintiff is a Bolivian citizen and resident and the widow of Eduardo de la Mata(the "deceased").

In 1982, the deceased purchased four insurance policies from Alfredo Aviles, an ALICO insurance agent in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.²The four insurance policies were (a) a $200,000 personal accident insurance policy, numbered XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX³ with the deceased's father as beneficiary; (b) two endowment policies, numbered 0882140 and 0882142, each to provide $50,000 to one of the deceased's two children upon their eighteenth birthday⁴; and (c) a $100,000 whole life insurance policy, numbered 0882141 on the life of the deceased with the deceased's children as beneficiaries.

The whole life policy and the accidental death policy contain provisions excluding payment in the event of the insured's suicide.The whole life insurance policy reportedly included a provision excluding payment in the event of the insured's death by suicide within two years of the date of the purchase of that policy.⁵Part D of the supplementary contract attached to the personal accident policy excludes payment "for injury intentionally self-inflicted, suicide or any attempt to commit suicide, be it in a state of sanity or of insanity...."

On March 19, 1985, the personal accident policy allegedly lapsed because of the deceased's failure to pay the premium due in February.The endowment policies and whole life policies also had allegedly lapsed around the same time, but ALICO reinstated these three policies following late receipt of the premiums.ALICO contends that the whole life policy's two-year exclusion for suicide was triggered anew because of the reinstatement.

On May 8, 1985, the deceased died of a massive brain hemorrhage caused by the discharge of a firearm.The medical reports submitted to ALICO indicate that the bullet entered the upper palate of the deceased's mouth and exited the occipital region at the back of the skull.Apparently, a coroner's report prepared on May 14, 1985 identified the wounds of the deceased but failed to state the obvious, namely that the deceased had taken his own life.⁶

On May 30, 1985, Aviles informed ALICO of the death of the deceased.The plaintiff also wrote a letter to ALICO on June 8, 1985, seeking payment under the whole life policy and the two endowment policies.In a form dated on July 17, 1985, the plaintiff requested payment on all four policies purchased by the deceased.One form, submitted with the plaintiff's signature, identified the cause of her spouse's death as "auto-elimancion" or suicide.

ALICO denied the claims because (a) the endowment policies for the deceased's children only provide payments when the insureds reach the age of eighteen; (b) the personal accident policy had lapsed two months before the deceased's death, and notwithstanding the lapse, the policy excludes payment in the event of death by suicide; and (c) the two-year exclusion for suicide under the whole life insurance policy was applicable because the policy had been reinstated after late payment of premiums.

The plaintiff apparently continued in her attempts to collect payments under the whole life insurance policy.However, the record does not set forth documents detailing the course or contents of these contacts.In December 1986, the plaintiff executed a "Renuncia a Todos Reclamacion," or a "Waiver as to All Claims"(the "Waiver"), against ALICO arising from the whole life insurance policy in exchange for $5,742, an amount representing the cash reserve value of that policy.

On September 10, 1988, the plaintiff through Bolivian counsel prepared a complaint against ALICO and presumably Aviles, seeking payment under the two endowment policies, each in the amount of $50,000 and the personal accident policy in the amount of $200,000.In a rather unclear paragraph of the complaint, plaintiff alleged that Aviles charged her $250 for advice which she deems "fraudulent and dishonest" and which persuaded her to accept that her husband's death was attributable to suicide.

On September 13, 1988, the complaint was filed in the Superior Court of the Judicial District of Santa Cruz(the "Superior Court"), which forwarded the complaint to the Second Ordinary Court for Civil Matters in the Judicial District of Santa Cruz(the "District Court") for processing in the first instance on September 17, 1988.The complaint requested an "executory proceeding."In Bolivia, an executory proceeding is an expedited statutory procedure used for commercial disputes.A plaintiff may elect to use an executory proceeding where (a)he holds a title capable of execution, (b)he has asked his debtor to comply with its obligations, and (c) the debtor delays in meeting the obligation.⁷SeeArticle 486 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Bolivia.

On September 23, 1988, the district judge authorized the plaintiff's writ of payment against ALICO in the person of its representative Aviles, her writ of attachment and her official notice of the complaint to ALICO.On the same day, the district judge, pending reply by ALICO, ordered a prejudgment attachment of ALICO's property as requested by the plaintiff.

On September 29, 1988, notice of the plaintiff's complaint was personally served on Aviles as a representative of ALICO, even though Aviles' agency relationship with ALICO had ended three years earlier.Under Article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Bolivia, ALICO had five days to respond to the complaint.As the court did not receive a response in the required five day-period ending on October 4, the plaintiff requested a default judgment on October 5, 1988.On the same day, Aviles submitted a brief to the District Court, contending that he lacked authority to represent ALICO since he no longer worked for it.⁸

On October 7, the district judge granted judgment in the amount of $300,000 along with $30,000 in statutory attorney's fees.The basis for this decision was (a) the documents submitted by the plaintiff establish the plaintiff's right of payment under the insurance policy, and (b) ALICO had not filed "exceptions which could have favored them" despite being notified by the complaint and writ of payment.⁹The judgment does not refer to Aviles' assertion of lack of legal capacity.

In the judgment, the district judge ruled Aviles would be obliged to pay the owed sum on behalf of ALICO.Galvanized by the thought of personal liability, or perhaps a stretch in a Bolivian prison, Aviles telexed Bruce Dozier of the Wilmington office of ALICO on October 10.The following telex was the first time ALICO received notice of the executory proceeding which had just been concluded before the District Court:

The widow of de la Mata policies numbers 8469780 & XXXXXXX-X-X has demanded to the company y Alfredo Aviles in the local court of justice y the judge gave the verdict against the company due the fault of proof stop I get a lowyer to defend the company.Send money also a telex indicated that Aviles is not working for ALICO since 1984.On the contrary, I will go to the jail.Need protection & take me out from Bolivia.Give orders what to do in this case.Errors not corrected.

On October 12, Dozier responded to this cry for help:

Today I referred your October 10 telex to M. Astaburuaga for review.Please supply Mr. Astaburuaga any facts you believe pertinent to his review of your request.

The record does not indicate any subsequent correspondence between Aviles and ALICO.

Most likely out of fear for his own liberty and financial security, Aviles took matters into his own hands.On October 17, he filed an appeal with the Bolivian Superior Court, arguing (a) the three-year limitation that the insurance policies impose for bringing a claim had run, and (b) ALICO is under no obligation to pay benefits under the insurance policy because of the deceased's death by suicide.Sometime after filing this appeal, Aviles left the stage.Neither ALICO nor the plaintiff have any information about his current whereabouts.

On January 29, 1989¹⁰, the plaintiff filed her answer to the appeal.She argued (a) ALICO never replied to her June 18, 1985 demand for payment under all four policies¹¹, (b)Articles 1041 and 1043 of the Bolivian Commercial Code impose a five-year statute of limitations which cannot be abridged by contractual agreement for claims arising from personal accidents or claims by life insurance beneficiaries, (c) the medical reports do not state that the...