Life Insurer Sues to Decide Who Gets Payout for Boy Who Died

A life insurance company wants a federal judge to decide who should receive a $10,000 life insurance payout for a 2-year-old Missouri boy whose parents were sentenced to probation after the toddler overheated and died.

Life Insurance Company of North America said in the lawsuit filed Monday that Blaze Saliger was found dead in October 2018 in the bedroom of his St. Joseph home, where 120 degree heat was blowing from a vent. His mother, 24-year-old Kailie Saliger, and the boy’s father, 34-year-old Scott Saliger, both pleaded guilty to child endangerment.

The suit says federal law prevents any beneficiary “guilty of the intentional killing of the insured without legal excuse” from being entitled to benefit from insurance proceeds. Blaze was insured under a policy his mother had through her employer.