Insurance companies are often stakeholders in interpleader actions.  EAPD’s Vince Vitkowsky has recorded a podcast for a public policy group analyzing the issues presented by the pending U.S. Supreme Court case, Philippines v. Pimentel, which was argued on March 17, 2008. The case arises from an interpleader action commenced by Merrill Lynch concerning an account containing assets deposited by the late President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos.  The Government of the Philippines was dismissed from the action on grounds of sovereign immunity, but the lower court did not dismiss the entire action.  Instead, it awarded the assets to the prevailing plaintiffs in a human rights case against the Marcos estate in the U.S. District Court of Hawaii.  The Supreme Court decision, which is expected later this spring, will  address the interrelationship between the doctrine of sovereign immunity and the indispensability provisions of Rule 19(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  The podcast can be found here.