Family of Beach Boys Drummer Wins Insurance

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided Friday that the widow and 3-year-old son of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson are entitled to a $400,000 death benefit that an insurance company refused to pay after his drowning death in 1983.

After the 11-1 verdict was read in court, the jurors were ordered to return Monday for a second, or “bad-faith,” phase of the trial to determine whether Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co. should also have to pay punitive damages.

“We are very pleased,” an emotional Shawn Love Wilson said after the verdict, which designated $200,000 of the benefit for her and $200,000 for her son, Gage, as their portion of a $1-million policy that the musician took out just a little more than a year before his death.

Other Beneficiaries

Attorney James H. Davis, representing the 21-year-old widow, said the insurance company settled with Wilson’s other beneficiaries--four children by previous marriages--”for just a small portion” of the remaining $600,000 benefit called for in the policy.

During the trial, attorney Kimler Casteel, representing the insurance company, argued that the death benefit was not due because Wilson had lied on his application about use of drugs and alcohol.

He said Wilson had checked “no” to questions regarding use of drugs or treatment for alcoholism. In fact, he told jurors, Wilson spent about $250,000 on cocaine in a three-year period and had sought treatment for alcohol dependency at St. John’s Hospital in 1982 under the name of Charles Wilson.