## Facts

- Stanley Janus had a $100,000 life-insurance policy naming his wife, Theresa Janus, as primary beneficiary and his mother, Alojza Janus, as contingent beneficiary if Theresa predeceased him.
- Stanley and Theresa ingested cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol during the 1982 Chicago-area poisonings and both collapsed.
- A neighbor (a registered nurse) performed CPR on Stanley; he had a “weak” pulse and “heavy and labored” breathing before paramedics arrived.
- Theresa initially remained standing, then fainted and had seizures; a paramedic observed she was breathing on her own though her pupils were nonreactive.
- A paramedic report recorded Stanley as having zero blood pressure, pulse, and respiration during transport; Stanley never regained spontaneous cardiopulmonary function and was pronounced dead the evening of September 29, 1982.
- Theresa initially showed no visible vital signs at the hospital, but clinicians restored cardiac activity and obtained a measurable (though inadequate) blood pressure; she was placed in intensive care on life support.
- Neurological testing on September 30 indicated total brain death; life support was withdrawn and Theresa was pronounced dead on October 1, 1982.
- Metropolitan Life paid the policy proceeds to the administrator of Theresa’s estate after concluding she survived Stanley.
- Alojza Janus sued, contending the evidence did not establish Theresa’s survivorship and arguing Illinois’ Uniform Simultaneous Death Act should treat the deaths as simultaneous.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient, under a preponderance standard, to support the trial court’s finding that Theresa survived Stanley.
2. Whether Illinois’ Uniform Simultaneous Death Act applied because there was “no sufficient evidence” of the order of deaths.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the judgment awarding the insurance proceeds to Theresa’s estate.
- The court held survivorship is a question of fact that must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence by the party whose claim depends on it.
- The court concluded the trial court’s finding that Theresa survived Stanley was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.
- The court held the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act did not apply because the record contained sufficient evidence of the order of death.

## Legal Principles

- Survivorship is a factual determination, and the party whose right depends on survivorship bears the burden to prove it by a preponderance of the evidence.
- On appeal from a bench trial, a survivorship finding will be upheld unless it is against the manifest weight of the evidence.
- The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act applies only when there is no sufficient evidence that the deaths occurred other than simultaneously; it does not control when evidence permits a finding of order of death.
- In resolving technical medical disputes (including life support and brain-death evidence), the trial court may credit treating clinicians and contemporaneous medical records over conflicting retrospective expert opinions.

## Conclusion

Because the evidence supported that Stanley never regained spontaneous cardiopulmonary function while Theresa’s circulation was restored and maintained on life support until she was later declared dead, the court upheld the finding that Theresa survived Stanley and affirmed payment of the life-insurance proceeds to Theresa’s estate rather than to the contingent beneficiary.


Janus v. Tarasewicz, 135 Ill. App. 3d 936, 482 N.E.2d 418 (Ill. App. Ct. 1st Dist. 1985)