Odell, D. v. Weingartner, E. ( 2015 )

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
DREAMA ODELL, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellant
v.
ELLEN WEINGARTNER AND SUN
AMERICA ANNUITY LIFE,
Appellee No. 1433 EDA 2014
Appeal from the Judgment Entered June 13, 2014
In the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County
Civil Division at No(s): 12-01300
BEFORE: BOWES, DONOHUE, AND STABILE, JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED MAY 27, 2015
Dreama Odell appeals pro se the June 13, 2014 judgment entered on
the verdict in favor of Edward Weingartner, III and Suzanne Law-Ticknor
after a bench trial. We affirm.
The trial court succinctly stated the underlying facts and procedural
history as follows: properly
On or about November 11, 1961, Edward Weingartner, Jr.
was issued a life insurance policy by Mutual Benefits Life
Insurance Company under policy #4175670A. The primary
beneficiary of the policy was his wife, Ellen Weingartner, and the
contingent beneficiaries were "children born of marriage of
insured and primary beneficiary or legally adopted by insured."
Mr. and Mrs. Weingartner had two children, Edward Weingartner,
III and Susan Law-Ticknor. Mr. and Mrs. Weingartner were
divorced in 1994.
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Mr. Weingartner passed away on December 17, 2011. On
December 20, 2011, Plaintiff faxed a letter, dated December 19,
2011 and signed by her, to Sun America seeking payment of the
proceeds of this life insurance policy. Attached to this letter was
a Financial Transaction Request Form-Loan, dated December 14,
2011. This document, which appears to have been signed by Mr.
Weingartner, seeks a loan to the benefit of Mr. Weingartner in
the amount of $15,000.00. A handwritten note on the form,
written by Plaintiff, requests a form to change the beneficiary of
the policy and further states: "In the interim, this statement will
serve as the official and authorized change identifying the
beneficiary as Dreama Odell." Following this note is a signature
which appears to be that of Mr. Weingartner, and the date,
December 14, 2011. A second copy of the loan document with
Plaintiffs handwritten note was received by Sun America through
the mail on December 21, 2011.
Trial Court Opinion, 8/4/14, at 1-2 (select quotation marks omitted)
(citations and footnotes omitted).
On February 6, 2012, Appellant filed a pro se complaint against Sun
America Annuity and Life Assurance Company (incorrectly identified as Sun
America Annuity and Life) (“Sun America”) and Ellen Weingartner. Appellant
asserted that she was entitled to the proceeds of Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s life
insurance policy because the decedent effectually named her has the
primary beneficiary of that policy before he died. Sun America countered
with, inter alia, a counterclaim for interpleader that sought to add the
contingent beneficiaries, Edward Weingartner, III and Ms. Law-Ticknor, as
interpleader claimants. Thereafter, the parties stipulated that upon
interpleading the $27,979.66 insurance proceeds into the trial court, Sun
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America would be discharged from any liability and dismissed from the case.
Sun America deposited the funds and was dismissed.
Following a non-jury trial,1 the trial court entered the above referenced
order finding, “Plaintiff is not a beneficiary of the life insurance policy in
question.” Trial Court Order, 12/12/13, at 1 n.1. Essentially, the trial court
determined that, pursuant to the terms of life-insurance policy, a request to
change a beneficiary is deemed effective if received prior to the insured’s
death, that Appellant failed to establish that Sun America received the
document in time, and that she adduced insufficient evidence to establish
that Mr. Weingartner Jr. achieved substantial compliance with the policy’s
change-of-beneficiary requirements by utilizing every reasonable effort to
satisfy the insurer’s prerequisites. This pro se appeal followed the denial of
Appellant’s timely motion for post-trial relief.2
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1
Appellant was represented by counsel during the non-jury trial; however,
counsel was granted leave to withdraw on March 20, 2014.
2
As judgment had not been entered on the record pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 301
when Appellant filed her notice of appeal, this appeal was premature. See
Vance v. 46 and 2, Inc., 920 A.2d 202 (Pa. Super. 2007) (appeal to
Superior Court can only lie from judgment entered subsequent to trial
court’s disposition of post-verdict motions, not from order denying post-trial
motions). Accordingly, on May 29, 2014, we issued a per curiam order
directing Appellant to file in the trial court a praecipe to enter judgment on
the verdict. We further advised that upon compliance with the per curiam
order, this Court would regard the premature notice of appeal as being filed
after the entry of judgment. The trial court entered judgment on the verdict
on June 13, 2014. Accordingly, the appeal is properly before this Court.
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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Appellant presents ten fundamentally redundant questions for our
review, which we reduce to the following succinct issue: Whether the trial
court erred in finding that Appellant failed to prove that she was entitled to
the proceeds of Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s life insurance policy.
The following legal principles are relevant to our disposition. First, we
observe that, absent an error of law, our review the trial court’s verdict is
highly deferential. In Kennedy v. Consol Energy Inc. __A.3d __, 2015 PA
Super 93, *12 (filed April 22, 2015) (quoting Stephan v. Waldron Elec.
Heating & Cooling LLC, 100 A.3d 660, 665 (Pa.Super. 2014)), we recently
reiterated our standard of review as follows:
Our review in a non-jury case is limited to “whether the findings
of the trial court are supported by competent evidence and
whether the trial court committed error in the application of
law.” We must grant the court's findings of fact the same weight
and effect as the verdict of a jury and, accordingly, may disturb
the non-jury verdict only if the court's findings are unsupported
by competent evidence or the court committed legal error that
affected the outcome of the trial. It is not the role of an
appellate court to pass on the credibility of witnesses; hence we
will not substitute our judgment for that of the factfinder. Thus,
the test we apply is “not whether we would have reached the
same result on the evidence presented, but rather, after due
consideration of the evidence which the trial court found
credible, whether the trial court could have reasonably reached
its conclusion.”
Next, as it relates to the questions posed in this appeal, we note that,
in order to make a valid change to the beneficiary of an insurance policy, the
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(Footnote Continued)
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insured must comply with requirements specified by the policy. See
Carruthers v. $21,000, 434 A.2d 125 (Pa.Super. 1981). However,
Pennsylvania jurisprudence has carved an exception to this doctrine when it
is determined that the insured has done everything that he reasonably could
do to comply with the policy. Id. at 127. In Carruthers, we observed,
“The intent of the insured will be given effect in our Commonwealth if he
does all that he reasonably can under the circumstances to comply with the
terms of the policy which permit a change of beneficiary.” Id.Instantly, Appellant’s claim is two-fold. First, relying upon case law
that addressed the contract principles of offer and acceptance, Appellant
contends that the beneficiary designation was deemed received by Sun
America on the date that she placed it in the mail on Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s
behalf. See Falconer v. Mazess, 168 A.2d 558 (Pa. 1961) (offer of stock
purchase was accepted by posting in mail); Chanoff v. Fiala, 271 A.2d 285,
287 (Pa. 1970) (option on real estate accepted by posting check in mail the
day before offer was due to expire); Russock v. AAA Mid-Atlantic Ins.
Co., 898 A.2d 636 (Pa.Super. 2006) (automobile insurance renewal payment
deemed received on date check was mailed because policy required
premiums to be submitted by mail). Second, Appellant argues that Mr.
Weingartner, Jr. achieved substantial compliance with the terms of the policy
on December 15, 2011, by having Appellant note his intention to change the
beneficiary on the Sun America loan transaction form, signing the form near
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the hand-written notation, and directing Appellant to mail the form to Sun
America. The crux of the latter argument challenges the weight of trial
court’s determination that Mr. Weingartner, Jr. did not effectuate a change
of beneficiary on his insurance policy before he died.
In rejecting Appellant’s initial position, the trial court concluded that
the mail-box exception that Appellant attempted to invoke was inapplicable
in this case because the insurance policy required that it receive changes to
the designation of beneficiaries and alterations of payment options for
beneficiaries prior to the death of the insured. Specifically, the life insurance
policy provided,
Upon request, the owner may change the beneficiary. The
owner may also request that all or part of the proceeds be
placed under a payment option for a beneficiary who is a natural
person and who id to receive payment in his or her own behalf.
We must receive any such request before the death
of the insured. When we approve the request, any prior
designation of beneficiary and any prior agreement to
place the proceeds under a payment option will cease to
be in effect.
See Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Policy, ¶ 21.3 (emphasis added). As
Appellant did not assert that Sun America received the change-of-benefit
designation prior to Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s death, the trial court concluded
that the request was not effective.
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3
Sun America is the successor to Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company.
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As it relates to Appellant’s remaining assertions, the trial court found
that Appellant failed to adduce any credible evidence that Mr. Weingartner,
Jr. utilized every reasonable effort to comply with the policy requirements.
Specifically, the trial court determined that Appellant’s testimony regarding
Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s efforts to change the beneficiary lacked credibility and
conflicted with other evidence in the certified record. The court doubted
Appellant’s testimony concerning both whether Mr. Weingartner, Jr.
requested a change of beneficiary form from Sun America and whether he
used reasonable efforts to tender the self-styled request that Appellant
eventually submitted to the insurance company after his death. Additionally,
trial court found Appellant’s characterization of her relationship with Mr.
Weingartner, Jr. as “life partners” was suspect in light of the fact that she
sued him on at least one occasion over sales commission that she believed
she was owed. N.T. 12/12/13, at 24-25. While the testimony regarding the
prior lawsuits was only tangentially related to Mr. Weingartner, Jr.’s efforts
to change his beneficiary, the trial court considered the dichotomy between
Appellant’s representations and actions revealing as to her general lack of
credibility.
After a thorough review of the parties’ briefs, pertinent law, and the
certified record, we conclude that the Honorable Jacqueline C. Cody cogently
addressed Appellant’s arguments in her well-reasoned opinion entered on
August 4, 2014, and we affirm on the bases contained therein.
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Judgment affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 5/27/2015
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