The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Plaintiff Appellant v. Joseph Schlanger 2006 Insurance Trust And…

Summary

The court answered affirmatively that a life insurer may challenge a life insurance policy after the mandatory two-year contestability period when the policy lacked an insurable interest at inception. It held that such a policy is void ab initio as an illegal wager and therefore never came into force, so the incontestability clause does not bar the challenge. The opinion distinguished challenges based on ordinary application misrepresentations, which render a policy voidable and subject to the contestability period.