A federal judge has issued a summary judgment ruling on whether or not an insurer can deny life insurance benefits due to alleged materially false statements given on a policy application.

On July 9, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia denied summary judgment to Pacific Life Insurance Co. on a breach-of-contract claim filed by a plaintiff, who asserted that the insurer wrongly refused to pay benefits for the life of his deceased business partner due to alleged misrepresentations about his alcohol consumption.