In PHL Variable Insurance Co. v. Price Dawe 2006 Insurance Trust (Del. Sept. 20, 2011), and The Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. v. Joseph Schlanger 2006 Insurance Trust (Del. Sept. 20, 2011), Delaware’s highest court addressed somewhat esoteric issues involving hedge funds and others who buy life insurance policies from people, and assume the duty to pay premiums, in order to collect the proceeds when they die. The Delaware Supreme Court ruled that insurers can challenge the legitimacy of the policy that changed hands even after the two-year window that would otherwise apply to policy payouts. Other issues were also addressed in these cases that were presented to the Court based on certified questions from the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

The specific topic of this pair of cases is outside the normal scope of the more conventional corporate and commercial litigation focus of this blog, but we commend you to a thorough article about these cases that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on September 26, 2011, at page C2.