VANCOUVER — The family of a Vancouver gangster murdered in Mexico is suing RBC for refusing to pay out a $500,000 life insurance policy. Jodh Manj, 31, was gunned down in a parking lot in Mexico City on Dec. 6, 2018. No one has been charged.
Manj, who grew up on Vancouver’s south slope, was associated with the United Nations gang and had spent long periods in Mexico.
He bought the RBC life insurance policy in February 2009, according to court documents filed last week in B.C. Supreme Court by his relatives Kirpal, Aman and Yasbir Manj.
The three said in their suit that RBC Insurance sent out a series of letters on July 9, 2019 refusing to pay out the $500,000 death benefit. The Manj relatives claim the insurance company is in breach of contract and “was obligated to pay to the plaintiffs $500,000 upon the death of the life insured.”
But in court documents, RBC says the policy is void because Jodh Manj falsely claimed not to have any criminal convictions when he applied for the policy 11 years ago.
“The defendant says that contrary to Manj’s representations, Manj had been convicted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act offences prior to February 2007 and that he had been convicted of breaching the terms of his sentence for theses convictions,” RBC said in its response to the suit, adding that “Manj made these representations knowingly, without belief in truth, or recklessly, careless whether they were true or false.”
RBC Insurance “relied upon these misrepresentations in agreeing to issue the policy,” the court document said. “The defendant says that the policy is void as a result of Manj’s fraudulent misrepresentations.”
Manj’s relatives said there is insufficient evidence that Jodh Manj defrauded anyone.
“The defendant breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing by denying the plaintiffs’ claim when it knew, or ought to have known, that it did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Jodh S. Manj fraudulently made a material misrepresentation in his application for life insurance,” their claim said.
They said that, after they applied to be paid out, RBC initially made no determination about cancelling the policy despite a file review by a case manager. Only after an underwriter spoke to an RBC insurance investigator in an “undocumented call” was a decision made to rescind the policy, the family said.
