Insurer sued for $2 million over couple’s divorce
A Burlington, Ontario woman is suing Great-West Life Assurance for $2 million, alleging that the insurance company helped destroy her marriage after one of its employees had an affair with her husband.
Joanne Fraleigh says that Great-West was negligent and failed to properly supervise its employees after former senior benefits representative Catherine Lake Killen engaged in a relationship with Fraleigh’s husband Greg.
Killen tried to have the suit thrown out of court, but Justice Richard Lococo said that the novel issues the case raises deserve a proper hearing. He said that in Canada, courts have decided that insurance company employees can be sued for negligence in dealings with clients, though there’s no precedent as to the legal duty owed to an insurance claimant’s family members, such as Joanne Fraleigh.
Fraleigh alleges the affair between her husband and the Great-West employee started in February 2007, soon after he submitted a claim to the insurance company for reimbursement of medical expenses.
