Joseph Teller - The Tenth Case

MR. SMYTHE: Yes.

MR. BURKE: Can you tell us why you said, "absolutely not"?

MR. SMYTHE: Yes. I never gave Mrs. Tannen baum that document to sign. In fact, I'd never even seen it until you showed it to me, several weeks after Mr. Tannenbaum's death.

MR. BURKE: How can you be certain that you never gave it to Mrs. Tannenbaum to sign?

MR. SMYTHE: Because unlike Mrs. Tannen baum, I read every word of everything I ever gave her.

Nicely done, thought Jaywalker. But how was Smythe going to explain away his signature on the check? It turned out it wouldn't take long for him to find out, and he didn't like the explanation any better than he'd liked the previous one.

MR. BURKE: What about Defendant's B in evidence, the check that paid for the premium? You say you signed that yourself. Is that correct?

MR. SMYTHE: Yes, it is.

MR. BURKE: How do you explain that?

MR. SMYTHE: Just as I used to collect Mr. Tan nenbaum's bills as they came in, so did I collect Mrs. Tannenbaum's. When a bill showed up from a life in surance company in the amount of some twentyseven-thousand dollars, I made it a point to question Mr. Tannenbaum about it.

MR. BURKE: Not Mrs. Tannenbaum?

MR. SMYTHE: No, I figured that wouldn't have done me much good.

MR. BURKE: Why not?

MR. SMYTHE: Let's just say that Mrs. Tannenbaum doesn't have much of a head for business.

More laughter, again at the expense of the bubble-brain.

MR. BURKE: And what was Mr. Tannenbaum's response?

MR. SMYTHE: I don't recall his exact words. But as was his habit with just about all of his wife's bills, he told me to go ahead and pay it.

MR. BURKE: You say, "just about all." Were there exceptions?

MR. SMYTHE: I do recall that on one occasion he declined to cover a twelve-thousand-dollar charge for a bathroom mat in the shape of an elephant. He felt that was a wee bit extravagant, and he made her return it.

MR. BURKE: I see. In any event, when Mr. Tannenbaum told you to go ahead and pay the bill for the insurance premium, what did you do?

MR. SMYTHE: I paid it.

MR. BURKE: And how did you do that?

MR. SMYTHE: I wrote out a check, signed Mrs. Tannenbaum's name and sent it off.

MR. BURKE: And the check you wrote out and signed. Is that Defendant's B in evidence?

MR. SMYTHE: It is.

And just like that, the last of Jaywalker's "suspects" was, for all intents and purposes, crossed off the list.

Burke had one remaining witness, and following a recess, he called her. Miranda Thomas was a dark-skinned woman in her thirties or forties, with a slight singsong lilt to her voice that suggested to Jaywalker that she might have been born in Jamaica. The Caribbean version, not the Queens one. She was employed as a custodian of records by the Equitable Life Insurance Company. Burke had her identify Defendant's A as an application for a term life in surance policy, submitted by Samara Tannenbaum on the life of her husband, Barrington Tannenbaum, in the amount of twenty-five million dollars. Next he had her identify Defendant's B as the twenty-seven-thousand-dollar check that represented the initial-and, as it turned out, the only-premium paid toward the policy. Then he handed her an original of the policy itself and had it introduced as People's 10 in evidence. It seemed to Jaywalker that Burke derived great satisfaction from finally being allowed to get one of his own documents received as a prosecution exhibit.

MR. BURKE: You used the phrase "term" a moment ago. What is a term life insurance policy?

MS. THOMAS: A term policy continues in ef fect for a stated period of time. During that period, or term, as well as during any subsequent renewal pe riods, a term policy pays off in case of death. But un like a whole life policy, a term policy builds no equity. Hence, it has no cash value or value that can be borrowed against. At the end of the term, unless renewed, it has no worth.

MR. BURKE: What was the term of this particular policy?

MS. THOMAS: Six months.

MR. BURKE: Is that a normal period for a life insurance policy?

MS. THOMAS: No. A year is much more com mon. But we'll issue a six-month policy if asked to, under certain conditions.

MR. BURKE: What sorts of conditions?

MS. THOMAS: People occasionally take out a short-term policy when they're going to be traveling abroad or engaging in some dangerous occupation. If you were going up in a space shuttle, for example, you might want a policy of that sort.

MR. BURKE: As far as you know, was Mr. Tannenbaum planning on going into space?

MS. THOMAS: Not so far as I know.

MR. BURKE: Are you by any chance familiar with the date of Mr. Tannen baum's death?

MS. THOMAS: Yes, I have it right here in my notes.

MR. BURKE: How long before Mr. Tannen baum's death was this policy first applied for?

MS. THOMAS: Let me see. Thirty-three days.

MR. BURKE: And paid for?

MS. THOMAS: Twenty-seven days.

MR. BURKE: And issued?

MS. THOMAS: Twenty-two days. Though by regulation, it would have related back to the date the check was put in the mail and postmarked. So in that respect, twenty-seven days, again.

MR. BURKE: Do you know if Mr. Tannen baum was required to undergo a medical examination before this policy was issued?

MS. THOMAS: No, he would not have been.

MR. BURKE: Why not?

MS. THOMAS: Because the policy was written with certain exclusions, so as to exempt death from any specified pre-existing medical conditions. As you can see from the application, several of those are typed in under the medical history section. Specifically, had Mr. Tannenbaum died from either cancer or heart dis ease, the policy would not have paid off.

MR. BURKE: Wouldn't you consider those pretty major exclusions?

MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.

THE COURT: Sustained.

MR. BURKE: Had Mr. Tannenbaum not died during the term of the policy, and had Mrs. Tannenbaum elected to renew it for succeeding terms, would the premium have remained the same?

MS. THOMAS: No. As Mr. Tannenbaum got older, the premium would have increased with each renewal, eventually becoming prohibitively expensive.

MR. BURKE: So as a long-term investment, how much sense does this sort of policy make?

MS. THOMAS: No sense at all, really. It only makes sense if you're afraid the individual is likely to die very soon.

MR. BURKE: But not of cancer.

MS. THOMAS: Correct.

MR. BURKE: And not of heart disease.

MS. THOMAS: Correct again.

MR. BURKE: Did there come a time when Equitable learned of Mr. Tannenbaum's death?

MS. THOMAS: Yes.

MR. BURKE: Was that because a claim was made under the policy?

MS. THOMAS: No, no claim has yet been made, so far as I can ascertain.

MR. BURKE: How long does one have to make a claim?

MS. THOMAS: The policy says seven years. But the courts seem to say a claim can always be made.

MR. BURKE: So how did the folks at Equi table learn of Mr. Tannen baum's death?

MS. THOMAS: Like everyone else, I imagine. Someone at Equitable saw it on the news or read about it in the paper.

MR. BURKE: And did there come a time when either that someone or another someone at Equitable put two and two together and realized, "Hey, we've got a twenty-five-million-dollar policy on that guy"?

MS. THOMAS: Yes, something like that. Ac cording to our records, the issuing agent, a Mr. Gari baldi, realized that.

MR. BURKE: And what, if anything, did Mr. Garibaldi do at that point?

MS. THOMAS: He informed his supervisor.

MR. BURKE: And what did his supervisor do?

MS. THOMAS: He phoned your supervisor. He thought it looked pretty fish

MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.

THE COURT: Sustained, as to anything after, "He phoned your supervisor." The rest is stricken, and the jury will disregard it.