Lawyers to sue insurance firm for not paying Heath Ledger's policy

Melbourne, Nov 19 : Lawyers of late Aussie actor Heath Ledger's three-year-old daughter, Matilda, have vowed to sue a US life insurance company for not paying a 10 million dollars policy the actor took out four months before his prescription drug overdose death.

ReliaStar Life Insurance has decided not to pay the policy until it finds out if 'The Dark Knight' star committed suicide in his rented Manhattan loft in January.

The New York Medical Examiner's Office rules the overdose accidental.

Now, the insurance company's investigators are planning to interview actress and owner of the loft Mary-Kate Olsen, the masseuse who found Ledger's lifeless body, doctors who treated the movie star, and some of his co-stars.

Matilda's lawyer William Shernoff said that the delay in payment was contributing to the stress suffered by the actor's family

Shernoff said that he would pursue significant punitive damages from ReliaStar that could amount to 'tens of millions of dollars'.

"They are causing a lot of emotional distress to the family so we are going to go after the insurance company with both barrels," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Shernoff, as saying.

ANI