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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowStandard Insurance Company is asking a federal court to help determine how more than $200,000 in insurance benefits should be distributed in a dispute between an ex-wife and the son of a man who died last fall.
Jeff Scott Eberly died on Oct. 15, leaving behind insurance benefits that included a $200,000 accidental death benefit, a $10,000 seat belt benefit, and a $5,000 air bag benefit. He received those through his employer, Koorsen Fire & Security.
Those benefits are payable to parties he listed as beneficiaries which _ according to Standard Insurance _ remains unclear, resulting in a complaint the insurer filed last week with the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
As of Dec. 11, 2021, Eberly listed his wife Jennifer Marvel of Mishawaka as the primary beneficiary, and his son, Byron Eberly of South Bend, as the contingent beneficiary of both his life and accidental death policies. Effective Jan. 1, 2025, Eberly had removed Marvel as primary beneficiary of his life insurance, but he did not alter his designations for the accidental death benefits, according to court documents.
Standard noted in its lawsuit that beneficiary designations were supposed to be the same for both the life and accidental death benefits.
A divorce between Eberly and Marvel was finalized on March 26, 2025.
Marvel later submitted a claim for payment of the plan benefits. Byron Eberly responded, claiming he was the proper beneficiary for all of the above benefits.
“Byron Eberly and Jennifer Marvel are competing claimants with respect to the plan benefits, and an interpleader action is necessary to protect Standard from being exposed to potential multiple liability and the vexation of litigating multiple claims,” the insurer stated in the lawsuit.
The insurer also said in the complain that it “has been unfairly drawn into this dispute.”
Standard Insurance says it will give the benefits to the court clerk or some other escrow representative, and then it would like to be dismissed from the case while the son and ex-wife sort out their rights to the plan benefits.
The insurer also requested that the court bar Byron or Marvel from suing Standard Insurance or Koorsen from being sued, and that its attorney’s fees be paid from the court-ordered benefit payments.
The case is Standard Insurance Co. v. Byron Eberly and Jennifer Marvel, 3:26-cv-01297.
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