Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-14-02819/USCOURTS-ca8-14-02819-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Joetta Hearing
Appellee
Nikole C. Holloway
Appellant
Minnesota Life Insurance Company
Not Party

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

___________________________

No. 14-2819

___________________________

Joetta Hearing,

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

Minnesota Life Insurance Company,

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant,

Nikole C. Holloway,

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant.

____________

Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Northern District of Iowa - Sioux City

____________

 Submitted: April 14, 2015

 Filed: July 16, 2015

____________

Before MURPHY, COLLOTON, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

____________

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
Jon Holloway purchased a life insurance policy fromMinnesota Life Insurance

Company and designated his sister, Joetta Hearing, as beneficiary. Jon died in 2013. 

On or near his body was found a handwritten note purportedly signed by Jon and

expressing his intent that his daughter, Nikole Holloway, receive the proceeds of the

life insurance policy.

Hearing, the sister, filed an action against Minnesota Life, seeking an order

directing the insurer to pay the proceeds to her. Minnesota Life moved to interplead

the funds and to join Holloway, the daughter, in the action as a third-party defendant. 

Holloway filed a counterclaim, seeking an order directing Minnesota Life to pay the

proceeds to her. Hearing then moved to dismiss or, alternatively, for summary

judgment. 

The district court granted Hearing’s motion for summary judgment, 1

concluding that Jon Holloway did not effect a change in beneficiary from his sister

to his daughter. Nikole Holloway appeals, and we affirm. 

I.

Pursuant to a decree upon a divorce from his wife, Jon Holloway purchased a

life insurance policy in the amount of $100,000 from Minnesota Life Insurance

Company in 1998. The divorce decree required Jon to maintain a life insurance

policy payable to his children until his child support obligations ended. Jon

designated his sister, Hearing, beneficiary ofthe policy. The policy application stated

that Jon was “[n]aming sister as beneficiary so ex-wife can’t control the death

proceeds.” Jon’s child support obligations ended no later than 2008.

The Honorable Leonard T. Strand, United States Magistrate Judge for the

1

Northern District of Iowa, sitting by consent of the parties pursuant to 28 U.S.C.

§ 636(c).

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
When Jon died in 2013, a handwritten note dated September 18, 2012,

addressed to “Nikki” and signed by Jon was found on or near his body. The note

expressed Jon’s love for Nikki, directed her to “sell everything you don’t want and

bank it,” and said, “Chris would like the 44 Back The Rest you Get.” At the end, the

note listed the policy number for the Minnesota Life insurance policy, and the name

and telephone number of the insurance agent.

Nikole Holloway, whom we will call “Holloway,” submitted the note to

Minnesota Life after Jon’s death and claimed a right to the proceeds of the policy. 

Minnesota Life advised Holloway and Hearing of their competing claims. After a

series of filings in state and federal court, the district court eventually permitted

Minnesota Life to deposit the funds with the court and dismissed the company from

the action. That left Hearing and Holloway to battle for the proceeds. The court

granted summary judgment for Hearing, reasoning that Jon did not take adequate

steps to change the beneficiary from Hearing to Holloway under the policy’s changeof-beneficiary requirements. 

II.

Holloway first argues that she is entitled to the proceeds from the policy

because Jon’s handwritten note satisfied the policy’s requirements for changing the

beneficiary. In general, “a change of beneficiary can be accomplished only by a strict

compliance with the provisions of the policy.” Ehlerman v. Bankers’ Life Co., 200

N.W. 408, 409 (Iowa 1924). Where an insurance company deposits contested

proceeds with the court, however, strict compliance is not required. Thomas v.

Locomotive Eng’rs.’ Mut. Life & Accident Ins. Ass’n, 183 N.W. 628, 636 (Iowa

1921). Under those circumstances, it is sufficient under Iowa law that “an insured

clearly intended to change the beneficiary . . . and that prior to his death he gave

written notice to the insurer of the change intended.” Franck v. Equitable Life Ins.

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 3 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
Co., 203 F.2d 473, 476 (8th Cir. 1953); see Isgrig v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 45

N.W.2d 425, 428 (Iowa 1950).

Jon’s life insurance policy contains the following language:

If you have reserved the right to change the beneficiary, you can file a

written request with us to change the beneficiary. . . . Your written

request will not be effective until we record it in our home office. After

we record it, the change will take effect as of the date you signed the

request. However, if the insured dies before the request has been so

recorded, the request will not be effective as to those death proceeds we

have paid before your request was so recorded. 

The policy defines “you” as “[t]he owner of this policy.”

Holloway argues she isthe policy’s beneficiary because Jon’s note constituted

a “written request” to change the beneficiary. She further contends that the policy

allowed her to submit the note after Jon’s death, because the policy provides that “if

the insured dies before the request has been . . . recorded,” the request will be

effective as to death proceeds paid after it is recorded. She argues, therefore, that the

policy contemplates recording a written request after the insured dies, and that her

submission of Jon’s note to Minnesota Life complied with the policy’s requirements

for changing a beneficiary.

We cannot accept this construction of the policy. The policy requires the

policy owner (“you”)—in this case, Jon—to “file a written request with [Minnesota

Life] to change the beneficiary.” The policy does not permit a third party (e.g., a new

beneficiary) to file a request to change beneficiary, especially after the death of the

insured. The policy contemplates that an insured might submit a written request and

die before the request is recorded; it does not allow for a third party to request a

change in beneficiary after the insured is deceased.

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 4 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
There is no evidence thatJon notified Minnesota Life of an intent to change the

beneficiary. Holloway thus cannot show that the beneficiary was changed in

accordance with the terms of the policy. Nor can Holloway prevail under the rule of

Iowa law that notice to the insurer may be sufficient, despite noncompliance with

certain requirements or formalities, if notice is given before the death of the insured. 

Isgrig, 45 N.W.2d at 428. Rather, Holloway at best presents an “example[] of

unexecuted intent to make a change of beneficiary,” id., where application for change

of beneficiary was not delivered to the insurer until after the death of the insured. In

that situation, the Supreme Court of Iowa consistently has deemed the notice

insufficient and ruled for the original beneficiary. Id. (citing cases).

III.

Holloway also argues that the district court erred in declining to impose a

constructive trust in her favor over the policy proceeds. Under Iowa law, a

constructive trust is an equitable remedy imposed to prevent unjust enrichment. In

re Estate of Peck, 497 N.W.2d 889, 890 (Iowa 1993). Constructive trusts may arise

fromfraud or “equitable principles other than fraud.” Berger v. Cas’ Feed Store, Inc.,

577 N.W.2d 631, 632 (Iowa 1998). Those equitable principles may allow for relief

in cases of “bad faith, duress, coercion, undue influence, abuse of confidence, or any

form of unconscionable conduct or questionable means by which one obtains the

legal right to property which [one] should not in equity and good conscience hold.” 

Id. In other words, “the essence of the [constructive] trust is wrongdoing of some

kind.” Sinclair v. Allender, 26 N.W.2d 320, 325 (Iowa 1947). Evidence to establish

a constructive trust must be clear and convincing. James v. James, 105 N.W.2d 498, 

500 (1960).

Holloway is not entitled to a constructive trust over the insurance proceeds

because she presented no evidence that Hearing obtained her beneficiary status

through anywrongdoing, unconscionable conduct, or questionablemeans. Holloway

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 5 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
urged only that Jon intended that she, not Hearing, receive the proceeds. But a

constructive trust should not be used to give effect to an alleged unexecuted intent of

a decedent where the named beneficiary did nothing wrong. See Sinclair, 26 N.W.2d

at 325; Estate of Farrell, 461 N.W.2d 360, 362 (Iowa Ct. App. 1990). If the rule were

otherwise, then the Iowa court’s requirement in Isgrig that an insured must give

written notice to the insurer before death would be meaningless, and every case could

invite litigation over the decedent’s unexecuted intent.

On appeal, Holloway alleges that Hearing acted in “bad faith” and abused Jon’s

confidence by keeping the proceeds even though Jon “entrusted [her] to see to it that

Holloway . . . would receive the life insurance proceeds in the event of his death.” 

Yet Holloway presented no evidence that Hearing agreed to give the proceeds to

Holloway, or that Jon asked Hearing to do so. Jon’s statement in his policy that he

was namingHearing as beneficiary “so ex-wife can’t control the death proceeds” does

not establish that Jon entrusted Hearing to deliver the proceeds to Holloway. Insofar

as the divorce decree’s requirement that Jon maintain life insurance for his children

might have given Holloway an interest in the proceeds, the requirement was premised

on Jon’s child support obligation, and that obligation ended before Jon’s death. 

Holloway thus failed to establish her right to a constructive trust.

IV.

Holloway argues finally that the district court erred by treating Hearing’s

motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment without proper notice, and

without giving Holloway opportunity to provide materials in opposition to the

motion. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(d), a motion to dismiss must be

treated as one for summary judgment if the court considers matters outside the

pleadings that were presented by the movant. Where the movant designates its

motion to dismiss alternatively as a motion for summary judgment, and the

nonmovant submits materials outside the pleadings, a district court is not required to

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 6 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
give formal notice that it will treat a motion as one for summary judgment. Madewell

v. Downs, 68 F.3d 1030, 1048 (8th Cir. 1995).

Here, Holloway had adequate notice that the district court would treat

Hearing’s motion as a summary-judgment motion: Hearing designated her motion

as a summary-judgment motion and attached the policy’s change-of-beneficiary

provision to the motion. Holloway urged the district court to treat the motion as a

motion for summary judgment, and Holloway submitted additional evidence in

response to Hearing’s motion. Holloway’s objection that she had no opportunity to

submit materials in opposition to Hearing’s motion is belied by her submission of a

brief in resistance, a statement of material facts, and an excerpt from Jon’s policy

application.

Holloway further contends that summary judgment was improper because

Hearing’s motion did not include a separately-numbered statement of facts, as

required by Northern District of Iowa Local Rule 56(a), or supporting record

citations, as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)(1)(A) and the local

rule. A procedural defect under the rules constitutes reversible error only if the defect

is prejudicial. Fed. R. Civ. P. 61; BancorpSouth Bank v. Hazelwood Logistics Ctr.,

LLC, 706 F.3d 888, 897-98 (8th Cir. 2013). Holloway contends that she was

prejudiced because Hearing’s statement of material facts—which contained only the

insurance policy’s change-of-beneficiary provision—frustrated Holloway’s ability to

respond to each material fact. 

Holloway does not identify any specific fact to which she was unable to

respond because of alleged shortcomings in Hearing’s motion. The record

demonstrates that Holloway was aware of the facts on which the district court relied

and had adequate opportunity to respond. Holloway acknowledged in her own

statement of facts that Jon named Hearing as the policy beneficiary. Holloway was

on notice of the policy’s change-of-beneficiary provision, as Hearing included that

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Appellate Case: 14-2819 Page: 7 Date Filed: 07/16/2015 Entry ID: 4295786 
language in her statement of facts. Holloway did not allege that Jon took steps to

notify Minnesota Life of his desire to change the beneficiary. The only material fact

not contained in either party’s statement of facts was the “Definitions” section of the

policy, which clarified that the person who could submit a change-of-beneficiary form

(“you”) was the owner of the policy. But Hearing cited the “Definitions” provision

in her response to Holloway’s statement of facts, and Holloway does not contend that

the definition isinaccurate. We therefore conclude that Holloway was not prejudiced

by any procedural defects in Hearing’s motion.

Holloway also complains that the district court prematurely granted summary

judgment before she could complete discovery. Holloway, however, did not file a

motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) specifying why additional

discovery was required, or otherwise explain to the district court how additional

evidence would support her claims. Holloway’s conclusory statement that additional

discovery would “materially bolster” her claim did not “affirmatively demonstrat[e]”

how postponement of a summary-judgment ruling would enable her to rebut

Hearing’s showing. See Willmar Poultry Co. v. Morton-Norwich Prods., Inc., 520

F.2d 289, 297 (8th Cir. 1975). 

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

______________________________

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