Title: Federal Anti-Injunction Act Does Not Permit Policyholder to Sue in State Court after Having Lost in Federal Court; Insurer May Have Second Lawsuit Halted
Abstract: New York Life ins. Co. v. Gillispie, 203 F.3d 384 (United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit-February 22, 2000) Because the United States is a federal system in which state governments and the national government share power, certain constitutional and statutory restrictions exist on federal power coexisting with the right of the national government to have supreme or exclusive power in some areas. One example of this tension is the Anti-Injunction Act, 22 U.S.C. [sections] 2283, which generally forbids federal courts from interfering with ongoing state court proceedings. However, an exception to the Act's general rule provides that federal courts may issue an injunction to halt or limit state proceedings to avoid relitigation of matters previously decided in federal court or to otherwise protect the federal courts from undue state interference. A tenacious life insurance beneficiary recently tested the confines of the Anti-Injunction Act but was unsuccessful before a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which includes the states of Texas and Louisiana. As the court summarized the facts of the two lawsuits: Ronald Gillispie died in 1993. His wife, Sheree Gillispie, is the named beneficiary of a life insurance policy issued to Mr. Gillispie by New York Life Insurance Company. Shortly after Mr. Gillispie's death, Mrs. Gillispie submitted a claim to New York Life alleging entitlement to the proceeds of the policy. New York Life denied the claim, contending the Mr. Gillispie's death was the result of a Suicide is unambiguously excluded from coverage under the policy. In 1995, Mrs. Gillispie filed a complaint against New York Life in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, alleging breach of contract and bad faith denial of benefits. New York Life [summary judgment]. Mrs. Gillispie's attorney did not respond to the motion. In early 1996, the court granted New York Life's motion for summary judgment, explicitly finding that all evidence points to the decedent's death as a suicide. Mrs. Gillispie subsequently hired new counsel to represent her. Her new attorney succeeded in convincing the Chancery Court of Tippah County, Mississippi to order the issuance of an amended death certificate declaring the cause of Mr. Gillispie's death to be accidental. In 1997, Mrs. Gillispie filed another complaint against New York Life, this time in the Circuit Court of Tippah County, Mississippi. The complaint stated the same basic causes of action as had the 1995 federal suit, alleging breach of contract and bad faith denial of benefits. 203 F.3d at 386. In response to the second suit in state court, the insurer removed the case to the federal court for the District of Mississippi, but the case was remanded to state court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the case involved both a Mississippi plaintiff and defendants other than New York Life that were Mississippi residents. …
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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