Word of the Month for August 2025: High-risk activities (that will cancel a life insurance policy)

Funny thing about going to law school, when people hear you went to law school, they tend to gravitate towards you when they have problems.  Doesn't matter if you practice law or not - they all have problems and the all seek answers.

Such was the case when I was approached by a neighbor the other day.  Seems Neighbor had been rock climbing with his familial relations and slipped injuring himself.  Ouch!

What was important to Neighbor was that somehow the insurance company that carried his policy for life insurance found out and informed him that rock climbing was one of the things that allows an insurance company to cancel a life insurance policy (high risk, and all).  Consequently, insurance company informed Neighbor that his policy was hereby cancelled and Neighbor was wanting to know if they can do that.

Turns out, they can.

Before we get into this, let's define a high risk activity.  As it relates to cancellation of a life insurance policy, a High-risk activities are ones that have a significant potential for adverse safety outcomes and which have a greater likelihood of resulting in significant harm, injury, loss, or harm as compared to standard activities.  Such activities take the form of a hobby or might be a particular line of employment.

Examples of high-risk activities might include:

• Scuba diving
  
• BASE jumping
  
• Hang gliding
• Race car driving
• Flying a plane
• Horseback riding
• Bungee jumping
  
• Parasailing
• Off-roading

Some employment falls into this category such as:

• Logging
• Aircraft pilots
• Offshore oil rig worker
• Offshore fisherman, Structural steelworkers
• Underground mining

As all this relates to Neighbor, turns out that rock climbing is also considered a high-risk activity by life insurance companies.  This is due to the inherent dangers involved, such as falls and injuries, which increase the likelihood of accidents and even fatalities.  As a result, rock climbing can impact both the cost and availability of life insurance policies.

Now, given the fact that this is a legal-related blog and may be wondering if this discussion borders on providing legal advice, it might be and probably would be were it not for the fact that most all of this information can be found via a simple Google search - which I suggested Neighbor to do after giving Neighbor some suggestions on what to look for (i.e. high-risk activities and rock climbing).

What is most interesting to me is that every state in the union has statutes related to insurance stuff.  In fact, after digging around on the Internet, I found a listing of what statutes relate to insurance stuff in each of the 50 states which can be found by visiting Fidelity Life Insurance's webpage. 

Great resource Fidelity is and so easy to find/use.

Anyway, Neighbor was satisfied and went on their merry to find answers to their most pressing needs.

Moral to this story, if ever you need help finding what you need, hesitate not a bit and seek out your local law librarian who will be more than happy to help you find what you're needing to be found. 

Get Focused

What is it that you want?  Money?  Fame?  Fortune?  Amnesia so that you can forget all the stuff you'd rather not remember?

The other day, as I was driving to work, I noticed a little black sports car coming up on my 6 at an accelerated rate of speed.  I noted that black sports car driver wasn't paying attention to where she was going as she looked up (from, I'm presuming, her phone) just before she slammed into the back of my car, slammed on her breaks, swore a blue streak, flipped me off, screamed some more, changed lanes, swore some more, flipped me off again, and sped off to tailgate someone else - because tailgating is an Olympic sport around here.

I'm guessing what Black sports car wanted was a lawsuit - given how she was driving.

Sad that.  I mean, did black sports car wake up thinking, "Today I'm going to drive like a crazy lady and rear-end someone?"  Probably not but as long as she tries to focus on two things (drive and phone), she's on a short road to the junkyard.

This all reminds me of the student who contacted me the other day.  Seems student is looking to write a research paper.  Seems student has not quite thought out what they want to write about since, when I asked what they wanted to write about, student said: Real Estate.

Uh huh.

The problem with this is that "Real Estate" (i.e. property) is pretty nebulous (as in a really big topic).  I mean, there are hundreds of avenues that can be taken when examining Real Estate.  Like, do you want to talk about eminent domain?  How about zoning, or hazards and disclosures?  Maybe environmental issues, cell phone towers, or do the effects of low-income housing on property values, catch your eye?  Yeah, there are a number of ways student could take this.

I know, when I'm in a quandary about where to start researching (or even picking a topic), I know I can always reach out to the Digests.

Organized by headnote topics and key numbers, the digests is a system of identifying points of law top help locate cases related to thousands of topics.  The digest works like an encyclopedia in that the topics are listed in alphabetical order and printed on the spine of the book.

Each case published in a West Reporter is evaluated by an editor who identifies the points of law cited or explained in a case.  Each case published in a West Reporter is evaluated by an editor who identifies the points of law cited or explained in a case.  

The editor places the summaries of the points of law covered at the beginning of the case.  These summaries are usually a paragraph long and are called headnotes.  Each headnote is then assigned a topic and key number. The headnotes are arranged according to their topic and key number in a multi-volume set of books called Digests.  A digest serves as a subject index to the case law published in west reporters. 

Got all that?

Now, I could go all day on how to use the Digests but let's break things down simple.  So, the easiest way to work the Digests is to look on the spine of the book. 

So, find the general subject you want to use and pull that book.  For example:

• Looking in the United States Supreme Court Digest for cases on Insurance, Look in Vols. 8B & 8C
• Federal Practice Digest 5th Series for Bankruptcy, look in Vols. 31-61 (a mere 31 volumes)
• 11th Decennial Digest Part 3 for Civil Rights, look in Vols. 11-13,
• Southeastern Digest 2d for Homicide, look in Vols. 26D-27B

See?  Easy peasy.  

Of course, there are other ways to find what you need - like hunting down a legal information professional (i.e. law LIBRARIAN) who can help you find whatever it is you need to be finding.

So, whether you want to hunt alone or hunt with a wingman, know that you're covered whenever you walk into a library because Librarians are here to help YOU!

It Just Perpetuates Crime

How many times have you read cases where people pay premiums for years and then, when they look to collect on a policy, the insurance companies pull a fast one and deny the claim?  I see it all the time.

Funny, then, when I'm reading the paper about that couple who, back in December 2, 2015 attacked and murdered 14 people and injured 22 in San Bernardino resulting in in the single largest massacre on the west coast.  I'd like to say the entire United States but that freak who shot up the Florida nightclub a while back was apparently going for a record.

Anyway, as shocking as all this is, what is even more shocking is the fact that I read in today's paper that last week that a federal court is considering to allow insurance payments to the murder's family to the tune of $280,000. 

Seems Rafia Farook, the shooter, had taken out a couple of life insurance policies before going on his murderous rampage and his surviving family is looking to collect.  Because there is no express law against such payments and, in California anyway, insurance companies can be compelled to pay on policies that do not explicitly exclude payment because of criminal acts, 

Really?!  What this sounds like is a bunch of politicians who are really pushing an agenda and who really, REALLY want to ignore decisions handed down by the SCOTUS. Decisions like Burt v. Union Cent. Life Ins. Co,,187 U.S. 362, 47 L.Ed. 216 (9102) and Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. McCue, 223 U.S. 234, 562 L.Ed. 149 (1912).  (see also Molloy v. John Handcock Life Ins. Co., 237 Mass. 181, 97 N.E. 2d 422 (1951).  

In Burt, the Court ruled that:

Public policy precluded recovery of benefits under a life insurance policy when the insured was executed as punishment for a crime...Public policy forbids the insertion in a contract of a condition which would tend to induce crime

Of course, the concept of "public policy" is not a new concept.  In fact, it's been around for at least a century or two.  The English Court of Chancery in Amicable Soc'y v. Bolland, 4 Bligh, N.S. 194 (1830) denied a similarly situated life insurance policy. noting that:

Suppose that in the policy itself...the party insuring had agreed to pay a sum of money year by year, upon condition that, in the event of his committing a felony,...his assignees shall receive a certain sum of money - is it possible that such a contract should be sustained?  it is not void upon the plainest principles of public policy?  Would not such a contract take away one of those restraints operating on the minds of men against commission of crimes? namely the interest we have in the welfare and prosperity of our conexions.

What is even more bothersome is that I keep running into people who think that just because the cases I cited are old, they have no validity.  HELLO, PEOPLE - old or not, they are the basis of the law on public policy and, as such, help to dial in on the issue at hand - which is, is paying on a life insurance policy where the person committed a felony against public policy?  Short answer, of course! 

Long answer, Who knows?  I mean, when people can't tell you who won the civil war but they can tell you who Brad Pitt has been married to, I suspect it depends on what public you're looking at.  In my public, it would be violative of public policy to award monies to a person's family after they had committed a felony (or any crime, for that matter, in which they had been killed or otherwise executed).  But that's my opinion and I'm entitled to it.