482 N.E.2d 418 (Ill. App. 1985)
Stanley Janus and his wife Theresa Janus ingested cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules on the evening of September 29, 1982, at the home of Stanley's brother Adam Janus, who had died earlier that day from the same poisoned medication.1 Stanley collapsed on the kitchen floor shortly after taking the capsules.2 Theresa soon began having seizures.3 Paramedics from the Arlington Heights fire department arrived.4 They provided treatment before transporting both victims to Northwest Community Hospital.5
Upon arrival at the hospital emergency room around 6:30 p.m., Stanley Janus exhibited no blood pressure or pulse.6 Hospital personnel attempted resuscitation with a temporary pacemaker and other measures, but Stanley was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. on September 29, 1982.7
In contrast, Theresa Janus had her spontaneous blood pressure and pulse restored in the emergency room without the need for a pacemaker.8 She was placed on a mechanical respirator, transferred to the intensive care unit, and underwent tests including an EEG on September 30, 1982, which showed some brain activity.9 Theresa was pronounced dead at 1:15 p.m. on October 1, 1982, after her life support systems were terminated following a diagnosis of total brain death.10
Stanley Janus held a $100,000 life insurance policy with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company that named Theresa as the primary beneficiary and his mother, Alojza Janus, as the contingent beneficiary.11 After concluding that Theresa had survived Stanley, the insurance company paid the policy proceeds to Jan Tarasewicz, Theresa's father and the administrator of her estate.12 On January 6, 1983, Alojza Janus initiated a declaratory judgment action against the insurance company and the administrators of both estates to claim the proceeds as contingent beneficiary, and the administrator of Stanley's estate filed a counterclaim regarding the disposition of Stanley's assets.13
At the nonjury trial, the court received testimony from paramedics Ronald Mahon and Robert Lockhart, nurse Diane O'Sullivan, treating physician Dr. Thomas Kim, and expert witnesses Dr. Kenneth Vatz and Dr. Joseph George Hanley concerning the victims' vital signs, neurological responses, and test results.14 The trial court determined that the evidence sufficiently established Theresa's survival of Stanley.15 Plaintiff Alojza Janus and the administrator of Stanley's estate appealed the judgment.16
Whether there was sufficient evidence that Theresa Janus survived Stanley Janus?17
Survivorship is a fact which must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence by the party whose claim depends on survivorship.18 Under the Illinois version of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, if there is no sufficient evidence that the persons have died otherwise than simultaneously, the property of each is disposed of as if he had survived, and for life insurance, the proceeds are distributed as if the insured had survived the beneficiary.19 Legal death may be determined by the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or, when those functions are artificially maintained, by the irreversible cessation of total brain function, diagnosed in accordance with usual and customary standards of medical practice.
Yes. The evidence presented at trial established by a preponderance of the evidence that Theresa Janus survived her husband Stanley.20 Stanley was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. on September 29, 1982, after his vital signs disappeared en route to the hospital and could not be reestablished despite resuscitation efforts including a pacemaker.21
In contrast, Theresa had spontaneous blood pressure and pulse restored without artificial maintenance by pacemaker or medication.22 She was placed on a mechanical respirator, transferred to the intensive care unit, and underwent tests including an EEG on September 30, 1982, which showed some brain activity. She was not diagnosed as brain dead until after tests on September 30 and was pronounced dead on October 1, 1982.23 These facts, based on the testimony of treating physicians and experts applying the usual and customary standards of medical practice, demonstrate that Theresa survived Stanley, satisfying the Simultaneous Death Act's requirements for distribution of the insurance proceeds.24
There was sufficient evidence that Theresa Janus survived Stanley Janus.25