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Insurance company stalls on Heath Ledger payout
Denver News.Net
Tuesday 30th September, 2008
Just when the late actor Heath Ledger's family confirmed that his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda Rose, would inherit all of her father's estate, a lawsuit has revealed that an insurance company is trying to avoid paying a 12 million dollar claim to her.
A former attorney for Ledger, John S LaViolette, sued Minnesota-based ReliaStar Life Insurance in July, saying the company was trying to avoid paying the claim.
The court case doesn't mention Ledger or his daughter's name, but says it is on behalf of a man who died of 'accidental causes on January 22, 2008.'
That is the date the 28-year-old actor was found dead of an apparent accidental prescription drug overdose in New York.
ReliaStar has responded that it is seeking more information about whether Ledger may have lied on paperwork and about whether his death may have been a suicide.
LaViolette's lawsuit claims ReliaStar had to investigate any statements Ledger made in paperwork while the actor was still alive.
The case was removed from Los Angeles Superior Court to federal court in August.
William Shernoff, the lawyer representing LaViolette and Matilda Rose, said ReliaStar has told him it would seek the depositions of a masseuse who found Ledger's body and of actress Mary-Kate Olsen, who received a flurry of phone calls after the body was found.
Shernoff said that the insurance company's lawyers also want to question Ledger's co-stars, agents and doctors.
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