Wife or Widow: Jury to Decide Confounding Life-Insurance Claim

Is Eduardo Rosendi dead or alive? That’s a $26 million question for two of the world’s largest insurance companies, a question they will put before a federal jury in Houston next week.

“It’s the most interesting trial I have ever been involved in,” said Mikal C. Watts of San Antonio, a storied plaintiffs’ attorney representing Blanca Monica Villareal, Rosendi’s supposed widow. She claims she’s entitled to collect on two term life-insurance policies Rosendi purchased in 2014, one for $10 million from Transamerica Corp. and one for $16 million from Pruco Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Prudential Financial. Villareal is the primary beneficiary on both policies.