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dinette, room for two across from each other. Under my chair was a
fully functional litter box. It was a hot day. There was no breeze.
McFarlane apologized for the feline funkiness of his trailer. The cat,
Tiger, had belonged to his “best friend in the world,” fifty-five-year-old
Rose Marie Lavoie, who had died in a fire. Tiger had been in her apart-
ment when the fire happened, but somehow he survived.
On the day of the fire, March 29, 1996, McFarlane had been in
Lavoie’s apartment, but left to look for a job. Lavoie, who suffered from
epilepsy, apparently was smoking a cigarette during a seizure and it set
fire to the apartment.
McFarlane was devastated by the loss, beating himself up because
he had not been there to help. It would have saved her life. “I was going
out to look for a job. I left earlier. I’d say about a half hour later than
when it happened. I would say I was the last person to see her alive.”
McFarlane was horrified, and fixated on the damage the fire
caused. “The intensity of the heat in that place. I had a clock in the
hall cupboard. It was plastic and it melted. And the TV and all the
stuff. It just melted around her.”
McFarlane knew that Lavoie had a small $7,800 life insurance pol-
icy. He checked with Norwich Union and found out that he was the
beneficiary. Norwich Union asked him to supply a death certificate
204
Banking on Insurance
and a birth certificate. He did, in July of 1996. Then he waited. And
waited. The company kept telling McFarlane it was having trouble
establishing that this was an accidental death, where Norwich Union
would pay triple indemnity, $23,400.
Finally, in January of 1997, Brian McFarlane came to us. Norwich
Union told us the same story. They were having trouble establishing
that the death was accidental. Norwich Union suggested maybe we
could get a copy of the fire report and send it on to them.
Well, we did. The fire report fro the Ontario Minister of the
Solicitor General was, at least we thought, as simple journalists, con-
clusive. It said, in the “Summary Section” of the document:
The deceased was paralyzed on her right side. It was not
unusual for her to have up to four seizures weekly. The
deceased had careless smoking habits and whenever she
had a seizure, her “Life Line” usually activated, causing
emergency vehicles and personnel to attend. There was
a tremendous pressure on the deceased by numerous
persons close to her to attend a home care facility.
The cause of death was carbon monoxide poi-
soning, indicating the deceased was alive for a por-
tion of the fire.
The lighter found on the couch and the smoker’s
materials found around the body all indicate the fire
was caused by careless smoking.
Then there was an addendum to the report, written five days after
we had requested a copy, that emphasizes for any doubting insurance
company, that the fire and the death were accidental. The addendum
said, “There was no flammable liquid present at the fire scene. The
pathologist report did not indicate anything out of the ordinary. As a
result of these findings, there is nothing to indicate this fire was any-
thing other than accidental.”
We sent the report to Norwich Union. It was the proof and cate-
gorical language they had wanted, so they said. McFarlane got a cheque
for $24,373.69.
205
Getting What You Deserve
So McFarlane, down on his luck, with no money and no job, had
a little positive push to help him get on with his life. McFarlane looked
at the cheque and Tiger, The Cat Who Wouldn’t Die. He told me that
he could now believe that all things were possible.
Therese Ayotte and her husband, Victor, of Sudbury, Ontario, did some
one-stop shopping back in July of 1995, when they signed a mortgage.
The mortgage was with National Bank and the life and disability insur-
ance covering the mortgage was handled by National Bank Life
Insurance Company.
Then Victor, healthy, strapping, and vigorous his whole life, devel-
oped liver disease. It lead to a liver transplant, but the transplant did
not go well. During his dying days, if there was one thing that com- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]