Ledger's insurance company stalling
Updated on 30 September 2008
Heath Ledger's insurance company has been sued for not paying out $10 million (£5 million) in benefits to his daughter, claiming the actor may have committed suicide.
The 28-year-old Australian star of Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight was found dead in his New York apartment in January in what officials ruled was an accidental death from an overdose of painkillers and other medicines.
But lawyers for the ReliaStar insurance company, where Ledger took out a life insurance policy in 2007, have claimed his death was suspicious and possibly a suicide.
Ledger's daughter with actress Michelle Williams, three-year-old Matilda Rose, was named as the beneficiary in the policy, lawyer William Shernoff said.
Shernoff, who filed the case on behalf of Ledger's daughter, said: "ReliaStar want to investigate the possibility of suicide, and we think that is inappropriate because the coroner's report and all the official reports say it was accidental.
"It is distressing for everybody. The insurance company wants to spend months, if not years, investigating this so they can hold on to their money."
He added that ReliaStar told him they wished to take legal statements from the masseuse who found Ledger's body, his colleagues, agents, doctors and actress Mary-Kate Olsen, Ledger's friend and the first person called by the masseuse.
A ReliaStar spokesman said the company was still investigating the claim on the policy and had not yet made a decision.
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