EAST ST. LOUIS – Minnesota Life Insurance wants a federal judge to determine who should receive $175,500 in life insurance benefits of murder victim Cathy Brandenstein.
In an interpleader complaint filed at U.S. District Court on May 1, Minnesota Life suggests Brandenstein's son Clayton Swanner of Crossville shouldn’t collect insurance as beneficiary of his mother whom he allegedly killed, but pleads that it can’t figure out who should collect it.
The insurer seeks to deposit the funds in the court's registry.
Attorney Jacqueline Herring of Chicago wrote for the insurer that a person who wrongfully causes a death may not profit from that death.
She asked the court not only to disqualify Swanner but also to decide whether his daughter or his uncles should collect.
Swanner faces charges that he shoved Brandenstein into a fire and held her there last November.
She died on Jan. 10, at age 61, in University of Louisville Hospital.
Swanner pleaded not guilty, and awaits trial in White County jail.
According to Herring’s complaint, Brandenstein obtained coverage through a group policy for Indiana state employees.
Brandenstein named Swanner’s daughter, a minor, as contingent beneficiary.
Herring wrote that the minor’s mother, Karen Swanner of Sparta, contacted Minnesota Life about filing a claim for the proceeds.
She wrote that Delbert Brown of Libertyville, Brandenstein’s brother, contacted Minnesota Life and claimed the proceeds for himself and his brother Patrick Brown of Norman, Oklahoma.
“He asserted that due to slayer laws, neither Clayton Swanner nor his daughter, the contingent beneficiary, could receive the proceeds,” Herring wrote.
The Brown brothers submitted beneficiary statements on April 16, she wrote.
Herring’s complaint seeks to enjoin court proceedings against Minnesota Life or the state of Indiana as policyholder.
“Minnesota Life is a disinterested stakeholder and is unable to determine who is entitled to the proceeds or to make payment without being subject to multiple liabilities,” she wrote.
She classified Swanner, his daughter, and his uncles as competing claimants.
She proposed to tender the proceeds to the clerk, obtain an order of dismissal with prejudice, and let the family interplead with each other.
She requested appointment of a guardian or conservator for Swanner’s daughter.
The slayer statute in Illinois provides, “The property, benefit, or other interest shall pass as if the person causing the death died before the decedent.”
Indiana’s statute provides that property must benefit persons legally entitled to it, determined as if the slayer had died before the victim.