Da Exterminating Co., Inc. Versus John Gary Discon and Acacia Financial Group

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 30, 2024
Docket24-CA-116
StatusUnknown

This text of Da Exterminating Co., Inc. Versus John Gary Discon and Acacia Financial Group (Da Exterminating Co., Inc. Versus John Gary Discon and Acacia Financial Group) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Da Exterminating Co., Inc. Versus John Gary Discon and Acacia Financial Group, (La. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

DA EXTERMINATING CO., INC. NO. 24-CA-116

VERSUS FIFTH CIRCUIT

JOHN GARY DISCON AND ACACIA COURT OF APPEAL FINANCIAL GROUP STATE OF LOUISIANA

ON APPEAL FROM THE TWENTY-FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT PARISH OF JEFFERSON, STATE OF LOUISIANA NO. 823-301, DIVISION "O" HONORABLE DANYELLE M. TAYLOR, JUDGE PRESIDING

October 30, 2024

MARC E. JOHNSON JUDGE

Panel composed of Judges Susan M. Chehardy, Marc E. Johnson, and Stephen J. Windhorst

AFFIRMED MEJ SMC SJW COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT, D.A. EXTERMINATING CO. INC. Paula M. Wellons Samantha P. Griffin

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE, ACACIA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLC Beverly A. Delaune

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE, UNITED WEALTH ADVISORS GROUP, LLC AND THE ACAIA GROUP, LLC David C. Bernard

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE, AMERITAS LIFE INSURANCE CORP. George D. Fagan Andrew C. Abrams JOHNSON, J.

Plaintiff/Appellant, DA Exterminating Co., Inc. (“DA Exterminating”),

appeals the 24th Judicial Court’s December 11, 2023 judgment granting the

motions for summary judgment filed by Defendants, Acacia Financial Group, LLC

(“Acacia Financial”), United Wealth Advisors Group, LLC (“UWAG”), The

Acacia Group, LLC (“TAG”), and Ameritas Life Insurance Corporation

(“Ameritas”), and dismissing Plaintiff’s claims arising from a failure to process a

change of beneficiary form for a life insurance policy Plaintiff held for one of its

employees in 2017. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court’s

judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 2005, Defendant, John Gary Discon (“Discon”), an insurance agent, sold

to Jed D’Arensbourg (“D’Arensbourg”), a co-owner of DA Exterminating, several

“key man” Ameritas Life Insurance (then Acacia Life Insurance) policies for

employees of DA Exterminating and a few other companies D’Arensbourg co-

owned. In May 2017, DA Exterminating submitted a change of beneficiary

(“COB”) form requesting that DA Exterminating be the sole beneficiary for Policy

#4003178404 insuring its employee, John Harrington. In response to an

interrogatory, D’Arensbourg could not remember whether he emailed the

Harrington COB form to Discon, or mailed it to Ameritas. At his deposition,

D’Arensbourg testified that he remembered physically giving Discon the

Harrington COB form, but did not recall whether they were at his office or

Discon’s office. A copy of the Harrington COB form, referred to as Exhibit #7

during D’Arensbourg’s deposition, was not filed into the court record1.

1 During the depositions, counsel and the parties referred to several exhibits that were not entered into the court record. No exhibits were entered into evidence during the hearing on the motions for summary judgment. The only attachments to the motions for summary judgment and the opposition thereto were the petitions filed, the affidavit of Dominick F. Impastato, Jr. (former owner of Acacia Financial), the Assignment and Assumption Agreement between Acacia Financial and UWAG/TAG, the depositions of D’Arensbourg and Discon, and a photo of text exchanges between the two dated May 9, 2017, October 30

24-CA-116 1 On November 1, 2017, D’Arensbourg texted Discon, and asked that Discon

confirm that DA Exterminating was designated the sole beneficiary on all of the

life insurance policies held by the companies he co-owned, except the policies for

D’Arensbourg and DA-Exterminating’s co-owner, Chris Caire. Discon responded

by text that he was “pretty positive they are all DA[E]” and he would check the

policies when he arrived in the office around 9:00 a.m.

Both D’Arensbourg and Discon agreed that they spoke after the November

2017 text exchange, but offered conflicting testimony regarding what they

discussed.

D’Arensbourg averred that Discon initially responded that the beneficiary of

Chris Caire’s policy needed to be changed, and advised him two weeks later that

the beneficiary for the policy of employee Gerald Matherne also needed to be

changed. Discon did not mention the Harrington policy. At his deposition,

D’Arensbourg testified that he received a confirmation that the Matherne policy

beneficiary had been changed in November of 2017. D’Arensbourg also testified

that, after Harrington’s death in 2021, he received a letter2 from Ameritas

confirming the company changed the beneficiary of the Caire policy.

D’Arensbourg recalled that an Ameritas employee called him to apologize and told

him it was the company’s fault, not Discon’s, that the Caire change of beneficiary

form (“COB”) had not been processed when it was sent in 2017.

Discon admitted that he understood he was supposed to change the

beneficiaries of all policies that did not list DA Exterminating as sole beneficiary

in November 2017. He recalled receiving an email on October 31, 2017 from DA

Exterminating stating that its CPA advised that the company needed to make

and 31, 2017, November 1, 2017, November 7, 2017, October 19, 2020, March 4, 2021, and April 20, 2021. 2 The letter D’Arensbourg received to confirm the Caire COB form had been processed was dated November 7, 2017.

24-CA-116 2 changes. At the time he received the text from D’Arensbourg on November 1,

2017, three policies did not list DA Exterminating as the sole beneficiary: namely,

the policies for Chris Caire, Gerald Matherne, and John Harrington. Discon

testified that D’Arensbourg returned COB forms for the Caire and Matherne

policies. He disclosed that he did not discuss with D’Arensbourg the need to

submit a COB form for the Harrington policy, but “assumed” that he would do so.

Discon averred that what he meant by his November 1, 2017 message to

D’Arensbourg was that the COB forms were being processed, but DA

Exterminating did not submit the Caire COB form until November 1, 2017, and the

COB form for Matherne until November 15, 2017. When D’Arensbourg

confronted Discon about the issue regarding the Harrington COB form after

Harrington’s death, Discon told D’Arensbourg that his office/Ameritas did not

have a COB form for Harrington on file. He never told D’Arensbourg that he did

not send the form to him.

Harrington died on April 16, 2021. Ameritas denied receiving a COB form

for the Harrington policy and, thus, paid 50% of the proceeds to DA Exterminating

and 50% to Harrington’s estate.

During both depositions, the control dates of the various COB forms

submitted by D’Arensbourg were discussed. Discon testified that the control date

on the COB form submitted for D’Arensbourg’s personal policy in July 2017 was

“5/9/17” – the beneficiary for the D’Arensbourg policy was timely changed.

D’Arensbourg testified that the control date on the COB form he submitted on the

Harrington policy in May 2017, and the COB forms he submitted on the Matherne

and Caire policies in November 2017, was “1/18/12.” Of the three “1/18/12”

control date COB forms, it appears that only Matherne’s COB form was processed

timely. The beneficiary on the Matherne policy was changed in November 2017,

and the company received notice of the change a few weeks after it submitted the

24-CA-116 3 Matherne COB form. After Harrington’s death in 2021, Discon attempted to

troubleshoot the problem and see if he could help D’Arensbourg resolve the issue

in DA Exterminating’s favor. Discon’s supervisor advised him that Ameritas was

questioning the “1/18/12” control date on the copy of the Harrington COB form

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