United States Supreme Court

The Virginia State Supreme Court correctly concluded that Section D of Va. Code Ann. Section 20–111.1 is preempted by The Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Act of 1954 (FEGLIA), where: 1) FEGLIA establishes an insurance program for federal employees, permitting an employee to name a beneficiary of life insurance proceeds, and specifies an "order of precedence" providing that an employee's death benefits accrue first to that beneficiary ahead of other potential recipients; 2) Section D of the Virginia statute provided a cause of action rendering a former spouse liable to the current spouse for the principal amount of life insurance proceeds left to them by the deceased, where there has been a change in the decedent’s mari¬tal status but the deceased failed to change the designated beneficiary; and 3) Section D of the Virginia statute conflicts with the purposes and objectives of Congress.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/03/2013
• Published 06/03/2013

Judges

• SOTOMAYOR

Court

• United States Supreme Court

Counsel