Woman wants dead ex-husband's pension

WINFIELD – A South Carolina woman says she's entitled to at least $30,000 from the pension or life insurance policy of her late ex-husband she claims another woman has been collecting.

Theresa Elizabeth Todd filed a lawsuit against Marsha C. Wolfe Todd in Putnam Circuit Court on Feb. 19.

The plaintiff says she and Bernard Lee Todd were married in 1972 and divorced in 1997. Part of the divorce order entitles the plaintiff to permanent alimony and the first $30,000 of either her husband's life insurance policy or his pension, the complaint says.
Bernard died on Nov. 29, 2007.

The plaintiff claims that the defendant has been receiving proceeds from both Bernard's life insurance policy and his pension from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 466.

"The defendant, in equity and good conscience, should not be entitled to the first $30,000 in benefits from the life insurance policy or policies and/or the Pension Fund and a constructive trust should be imposed on said benefits on a temporary and permanent basis," the complaint says.

The plaintiff was a temporary and permanent injunction placed against the defendant and a trust created with the plaintiff as the beneficiary.

Thomas H. Peyton is representing the plaintiff. The case has been assigned to Putnam Circuit Judge O.C. Spaulding.

Putnam Circuit Court case number: 09-C-60